Reburial of waterlogged wood, the problems and potential of this conservation technique

Abstract

Abstract In Britain the archeological work of the 1970s and 1980s recovered a large volume of waterlogged wood from terrestial (non-marine) waterlogged anaerobic deposits. There are problems associated with preserving this material through either conservation, storage in tanks, or reburial. There has recently been a policy change of English Heritage to preserve archeological sites by leaving them in situ rather than excavating them. Thus wooden structures are being preserved by maintaining the waterlogged anaeorobic deposits in which they are buried (e.g. the Rose and Globe theatres). However, sincd the exact nature of waterlogged anaerobic burial environments is largely unresearched, the ability to maintain an environment for in situ burial or recreate it for the ‘reburial’ option is clearly limited. Appraisal of the role of oxygen content, ion species and Eh. organic molecules, biological activity and pH illustrates the problem faced in researching and recreating waterlogged anaeorobic burial environments