Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Working Group
Triennial Programme 2017-2020

Working Group Activities and Projects 2017-2020

Specific themes for investigation/research
 

• The ethics and practicalities of treating waterlogged materials, especially large structures or large assemblages.
• In situ preservation of waterlogged organics.
• New treatment techniques and continued review of older techniques, such as Kauramin, PEG, Sugars, Alum etc. In particular, we welcome studies that address the long-term performance and stability of treatments, especially those that reassess the condition of the materials treated as part of the International Comparative Wood Study and currently stored in Trondheim.
• The treatment of composite materials.
• The treatment of non-wood organics.
• The display and storage of waterlogged (and previously waterlogged) organics.
• The role of sulphur and other contaminants in the deterioration of wood and other organics and ways to mitigate these effects.
• The documentation and characterization techniques for recording and assessing waterlogged organics.

Projects

Meetings:

•  2019 Interim Meeting to be held in Portsmouth, England.

Communications:

• Communications via two annual newsletters (summer and winter) and periodic shorter updates as warranted.

General:

• Planning the 2019 Interim Meeting to be held in Portsmouth, England.
• Publication of the 2016 Florence post-prints
• Preparation and publication of the 2019 Portsmouth Interim Meeting post-prints.
• Prepariation of the Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Working Group postprints for publication on-line. This includes obtaining copyright permissions from authors and institutions, formatting already scanned proceedings and scanning any remaining post-prints.