Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

BANGANARTI

SUDAN

CONSERVATION WORK IN BANGANARTI
IN 2006

Dorota Moryto-Naumiuk

The conservation and building work pro-
ceeding concurrently with the excavations
in the Raphaelion in Banganarti was aimed
at protecting and preserving the uncovered
building and the murals, graffiti and
inscriptions found on its walls, preferably in
their original place and position. While in
situ structural reinforcement of wall
paintings is a primary objective, on occasion
it is necessary to transfer an object in order
to be able to continue studies on it. The
present report will focus on the procedures
followed in two such instances from the
Banganarti churches.
The first case is a mural with scratched
inscription from Chapel 9 in the Upper
Church [Fig. 1 ]. It was executed on a lime-
sand plaster with clay added, the painting
layer applied to presumably kaolin white-
wash. The painting layer was whitish and
ocherish with a red stripe running
vertically on the surviving fragment. The
wall on which this inscription was found
was a later partition made of mud brick
that had to be dismantled in order for the
excavations in the lower church to proceed.
Before this could be done, the inscription
had to be transferred safely and the place
chosen for it was the southeastern Room
18 of the Upper Church, which had been
reconstructed in previous seasons.
Mechanical cleaning of surface dirt and
grime from the mural was the first stage.
Next, a 10% dispersion of Primal AC33

and polyvinyl acetate (1:1) was injected for
structural reinforcement of the plaster
ground. The painting layer was im-
pregnated with Paraloid B72 in toluene
(c. 3%). Cracks and losses of plaster were
filled with a mixture of lime, sand and clay
(coming from powdered mud brick) in
proportions 1:3:2, adding a few percent
polyvinyl acetate for adhesion. On-site
conservation practice has shown this
mortar composition to be the most ef-
fective and suitable for filling losses in
murals under the Banganarti conditions.
Once the reinforcing procedures were
completed, a facing of two layers of Japanese
tissue paper, a layer of thin, loosely woven
cotton and a layer of linen cloth, was applied
using as adhesive KLUCEL G (c. 5 cm3 per
500 ml of water). The mural was sub-
sequently cut from the wall with a saw,
together with the plaster ground. The back
of this layer was thinned mechanically and
smoothened, after which it was consolidated
with a water dispersion of Primal E330
with polyvinyl acetate (c. 15%), having first
lowered the surface tension with a mixture
of water and ethanol. The treatment was
repeated a number of times. Hollows and
losses of plaster in the back were filled with
putties of the same composition as those
used on the face of the mural; these were
sprayed repeatedly with water in order to
induce lime-carbonization processes.
Additional reinforcement consisted of a fine

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