Preserving unstable painted surfaces on freshly excavated terracotta: dilemmas and decisions

Abstract

Freshly excavated terracottas are usually damp and covered with burial dirt, salts and encrustations. This creates serious difficulties if the surface is painted: any cleaning or rinsing may remove the painted decoration. Often the paint is not well attached, complicating the problem further. This paper illustrates two different problems of excavated painted terracottas and their various treatments. Terracottas from the sites of Harappa (Pakistan) and Troy (Turkey) are examined. At Harappa, the terracottas suffer from severe soluble salt problems, while at Troy some of the terracottas are covered with insoluble salts. The discussion includes a survey of past treatments for preserving unstable paint, as well as recent cleaning methods and consolidation considerations.