Abstract
If prehistoric and historical time were placed into the time span of the existence of our universe, then the act of archaeology could be defined as the act of digging up what was only buried yesterday. So, conservation is about preserving a moment that has just become past time, yet significant. It is a moment of human creativity and ingenuity. It is not strange that forest wood has become the material to convey such moments. Forest wood is a living, everlasting source growing without human intervention, within reach, easy to use and shape thinking both great and small. It does not have to be a wooden ship; it can be a mere piece of charcoal. For it is what surrounded humans in the past which archaeologists seek and use to weave human history, and what conservators bring back to context by reviving it. This work presents forest wood as an artefact and its preservation challenges as such. It touches on its natural degradation processes through burial, compromised properties and eventual conservation. Both dry and waterlogged wood are included. The overarching aim of this paper is to pay tribute, preserve and inspire the long-standing, open dialog and fruitful collaboration between cultural conservators and forest and wood scientists.
Highlights
The purpose of this paper is to present basic concepts of wood structure and its physicochemical and mechanical properties from the point of view of a cultural conservator assigned with the task of preserving wooden artefacts and the practical as well as ethical problems involved when doing so
With the ends of the tracheids closed, the transport and distribution of fluids in conifers is primarily dependent on the pitting of longitudinal tracheids. These pits conduct fluids in the tangential direction due to their positioning mainly along the radial wood surfaces (Figure 3). It seems that this depends on the species, as fluids in Pinus sylvestris L. end up filling the longitudinal tracheids having first travelled through the ray cells especially in thin and long wooden structures [31]
It can be deduced that historical wood will not necessarily reach the same moisture equilibrium levels compared to sound wood under the same environmental conditions
Summary
The purpose of this paper is to present basic concepts of wood structure and its physicochemical and mechanical properties from the point of view of a cultural conservator assigned with the task of preserving wooden artefacts and the practical as well as ethical problems involved when doing so. Wood degradation and severity of degradation is partially about the wood species and deterioration already present at the moment of ‘discard’ and, more importantly, the burial process and type and duration of subsequent prevailing environmental conditions to which wood is exposed. Even so, it would be advisable for the reader to keep in mind throughout the text that the word ‘historical’ wood will imply some meaning of degradation apart from its value
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