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July 2003-July 2010InteractiveDig Sagalassos
[image]
Left, the Aphrodite statue after reassembling, pinning, and gluing together the fragments. Right, the two main parts of the Poseidon put together from dozens of fragments, before their joining.

Photos courtesy Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project. Click on images to enlarge.
by Marc Waelkens

Statue Conservation: July 31-August 4, 2005

Work carried out by conservators Erik Risser and Nerina da Silva and conservation student Melih Ekinci, assisted by archaeologist Semra Maegele, continued and was completed as far as the putting together and gluing of the Aphrodite statue is concerned. The statue's upper section was joined to the lower, with a number of smaller drapery fragments being attached after the larger structural reassembly was completed. The statue was removed from the sand box to make room for the satyr figure.

The conservation work on the Poseidon was almost fully completed, with only the placement of a support strut for the right arm remaining to be placed. As with the Aphrodite and the work to begin on the satyr, the pinning system used involves a stainless-steel dowel being potted in one side of the join, with the other side of the join having a corresponding sleeve or tube to receive the dowel. This system acts as a male/female mechanical join. The pinning system effectively provides reinforcement to the joining of the fragments with resin, particularly in the horizontal, but also acts to give a placement of each fragment with relation to each other that can be repeated if the resin has to be removed. This provides for an ease of reversibility in the case that fragments have to be removed if, in the case, further parts of the statue are found at a future date.

The Satyr statue fragments were moved into the sand box and the relation of each fragment started to be assessed. In addition, the base had its dowel and sleeve holes determined and drilled.

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