The project will be completed by March 2012 and we will then excavate and conserve the rest of the corridor.  The blog will return! 

In the meantime, please enjoy our posts from last year.  In the posts below you will find the conservators, the protection of the historic fabric, and the story of the excavations. 

Best wishes,

Guy

Victoria Frenzel

Victoria began her studies in archaeology and classics in Berlin at the Freie Universitat. After several years as a practicing archaeologist and conservator of objects and architecture from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern Age in Berlin and Brandenburg, she sought further education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, studying the conservation of mural paintings and historic surfaces.  Conservation of architectural surfaces has taken her to work in Africa in the Sudan as well as Britain for the Chedworth mosaics. Fluent in German, French, Latin, Italian and English, Victoria is a freelance conservator who also works in a bookstore specializing in art literature.

Hannah Moots

Hannah studied anthropology at the University of Chicago, focusing on Africa, conducting research and excavation in Niger. Working in the fossil preparation laboratory at the University of Chicago, she developed an interest in palaeontology and archaeological research, leading to a Master’s degree in archaeological science from Cambridge University. Beyond laboratory based research, Hannah has worked in museum settings as a collections manager at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and a historic interpreter for a monument site in Oyne, Scotland, demonstrating ancient techniques of bronze working and tablet weaving for visitors. She has taken opportunities to interpret archaeology and heritage for the public by teaching for Project Exploration in Chicago, as well as for the Higher Education Field Academy at Cambridge.

Rebecca Bradshaw

Studying ancient history at the University of Warwick, Rebecca developed an interest in classical history including Latin and Greek language study and Hieroglyphs translation, leading to a Master’s degree in Egyptology from the University of Cambridge. As an archaeologist, Rebecca has given back to her community in Cambridge through work teaching local young people about archaeology and heritage at the Higher Education Field Academy. After her conservation work on the mosaics here at Chedworth is complete, Rebecca is excavating in Egypt for the remainder of the year, in both the Sudan and the Nile Delta region. With a passion for teaching, travelling, journalism and photography, she has lived and worked in much of the Middle East, India, Nepal and the Far East as well as Turkey and parts of Europe. rbradshaw87@gmail.com

For the past few weeks, we have been busy stabilizing the mosaics on site.  The wobbly bits are in danger of getting broken or moved around during the upcoming phase of construction, so we are tacking them down with a removable stitch.  The stitch is made of geotextile (just like the ones we talked about for covering the mosaic) cut into tiny strips and tacked down with a removable acrylic adhesive on top of the tesserae. 

This method allows us to keep the loose vulnerable tesserae in place with a brace but with a very light touch.  Once the building is up and mosaics are ready to be unveiled, the stitches will be removed with a tiny swab of acetone and the mosaics will be once again just as they were found during the excavation.  This is a very time consuming process, so all hands have been on deck for over a week solid now.  We’re finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel, and hope to be finished by the end of this week with stitch bracing all four excavated mosaics. 

Here are some images of what the stitches look like on the mosaic.

As time goes on and the conservators become more familiar with both the scope and type archaeological material and how the design of the new building will enhance the presentation it becomes clear just how impressive the new display at Chedworth will be. The mosaic that is emerging from beneath the asphalt path is currently covered with wood and plastic roofs, with a protective sheet on the surface and the centre section is still covered with asphalt, but even in this condition the scale, at over 35 metres long, is striking and it is hard to imagine just how impressive this will look when it all is revealed and properly displayed in the building.

Things are moving up a gear as September starts with the archaeologists back to uncover the archaeology in rooms 7 and 8 in order that it can be assessed and recorded, then made safe before the building work begins. Also the stone masons are here removing the capping from the Victorian walls of the west range and levelling the same ready to receive the footings for the new building. As the activity increases the conservators have now designed and implemented a new survey system to record the condition of the mosaics and will very soon start reattaching loose material and protecting vulnerable areas before recovering begins.

There is still a lot to see here and a lot of experts all in one place who are available to discuss the works currently underway with visitors. So if you want to hear the whole story direct from the horses mouth come and visit us while the sun still shines at Chedworth.

As you may have noticed, it has been a very rainy few weeks here in the Cotswolds, and the mosaics would have been exposed to this direct water for the first time if our shelters had not gone up.  We are happy to say that the shelters have stopped the rain and allowed to the mosaics to slowly dry out a little bit in the past few weeks.  The mortar and surrounding material has firmed up between the tesserae, making them more stable than when first excavated.  The mosaics appear to need less intervention than originally thought because the soft mortar has firmed up on its own when given a chance to air out a bit.  With this protection from the shelters, we can monitor the natural changed happening to the mosaics as they are exposed to air and how they are improving on their own, then decide what further intervention might be needed. 

A snap judgement made based on their condition a month ago would have been unnecessary intervention, as they are stabilizing on their own with only some adjustments to their environment.  This leads the conservators to believe that the condition will naturally improve further once the buildings are on top of the space and the air temperature and moisture content is even more stable.  Once again, the wise and light touch of the conservator has come to great results.  Just doing our job