DOI Heft:
Egypt
DOI Artikel:Medeksza, Stanisław: Conservation work 1995
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26390#0048
courtyard and surrounding walls. The assumption is that work will
proceed centrifugally, gradually moving toward the outer house
walls. A program for the next three years has been prepared.
The first practical step was to clear the area of the house.
Compared with the 1988 documentation, the house was in very
bad conditions: collapsed walls, powdered limestone surfaces,
fallen plaster, faded colours, architectural elements eroded
sometimes beyond recognition, vegetation everywhere. Thorough
cleaning was needed to bring out the undamaged ancient
substance. All the stone floors, walls and the environs of the
building were cleared; blocks stored in particular rooms of the
house were moved away from the wall faces in search of remaining
painted plaster. The cognitive results of this work are hardly
satisfactory, because the process of deterioration of the ancient
substance has proceeded slowly but surely over the years.
The greatest damage was incurred by the wall tops, column
shafts and architectural elements of the decoration piled outside the
trenches. Upon excavation, these parts of the ancient structure
were highly susceptible to the detrimental action of the elements.
To stop or at least delay the erosion process, it was necessary to
partly dismantle sections of the walls and to clean mechanically all
the joints and stone faces. Successive sections of walls, or rather
their top and side surfaces, were prepared directly preceding
preservation measures, this m order not to leave any work undone
befbre the end of this short season. Ancient substance can suffer
considerable damage over the course of just one year, if left
unprotected.
The tops of the walls had to be dismantled to the technically
sound courses, sometimes down to the foundations. Powdering
limestone, missing joints and dangerous Assuring combined to
make the structure unsound. Unfortunately, it turned out
impossible to save the "mudbrick" phase of the structure. Over the
eight years that these parts of the structure were exposed to the
elements, the mudbrick walls have disintegrated, the plaster first
46
proceed centrifugally, gradually moving toward the outer house
walls. A program for the next three years has been prepared.
The first practical step was to clear the area of the house.
Compared with the 1988 documentation, the house was in very
bad conditions: collapsed walls, powdered limestone surfaces,
fallen plaster, faded colours, architectural elements eroded
sometimes beyond recognition, vegetation everywhere. Thorough
cleaning was needed to bring out the undamaged ancient
substance. All the stone floors, walls and the environs of the
building were cleared; blocks stored in particular rooms of the
house were moved away from the wall faces in search of remaining
painted plaster. The cognitive results of this work are hardly
satisfactory, because the process of deterioration of the ancient
substance has proceeded slowly but surely over the years.
The greatest damage was incurred by the wall tops, column
shafts and architectural elements of the decoration piled outside the
trenches. Upon excavation, these parts of the ancient structure
were highly susceptible to the detrimental action of the elements.
To stop or at least delay the erosion process, it was necessary to
partly dismantle sections of the walls and to clean mechanically all
the joints and stone faces. Successive sections of walls, or rather
their top and side surfaces, were prepared directly preceding
preservation measures, this m order not to leave any work undone
befbre the end of this short season. Ancient substance can suffer
considerable damage over the course of just one year, if left
unprotected.
The tops of the walls had to be dismantled to the technically
sound courses, sometimes down to the foundations. Powdering
limestone, missing joints and dangerous Assuring combined to
make the structure unsound. Unfortunately, it turned out
impossible to save the "mudbrick" phase of the structure. Over the
eight years that these parts of the structure were exposed to the
elements, the mudbrick walls have disintegrated, the plaster first
46