Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Working Group Triennial Programme 2023-2026

Themes for investigation

• The ethics and practicalities of treating waterlogged materials, especially large structures or large assemblages.
• Exploration of different sustainable concepts and methods within our field: for example, comparison of different materials used for impregnation, regeneration/reuse of materials used during treatment, methods used to reduce microbial growth during storage and impregnation of waterlogged organics.
• In-situ preservation of waterlogged organics.
• The documentation and characterisation techniques for recording, analysing and assessing waterlogged organics.
• New treatment techniques and continued review of older techniques, such as Kauramin, PEG, Sugars, Alum etc.
• 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 Working Group welcomes research especially from students and emerging professionals.

Projects

• Plan a hybrid Interim Meeting for about May 2025.
• Prepare the publication of the papers from the Interim Meeting.
• Communicate with members, when shorter updates are warranted in between the annual Newsletters, e.g., information about conferences, workshops, webinars hosted by other organisations or other sections within ICOM.
• Monitor our Facebook profile.
• Assist with gathering information for the Publications Online Platform Project related to the Working Group's past publications, as well as any further work required to place publications generated in this Triennium.
• Propose papers and posters for the ICOM-CC Triennial Conference based on abstracts. Review the selected papers and work with authors where applicable.
• Potentially plan other activities eg. Collaborations with other Working Groups.