6th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Archaeological Organic Materials Conference, York
Abstract
In recent years the treatment of waterlogged archaeological leather, unlike wood, has received
little attention in the conservation literature. The selection of treatments for wet leather is
generally thought to be less critical than that for wet wood. However variations in the treatment
of leather do affect the success of the treatment process. By examining these effects we may
identify which are the critical elements of the treatment.
At the Museum of London (MoL) the treatment of waterlogged leather with glycerol
impregnation and freeze drying, follows a method developed in the early 1980’s for the efficient
treatment of large quantities of material (1). This study aims to build upon that work, by
establishing the most effective concentration of glycerol to use with each individual artefact. To
do this it has been necessary to implement a procedure to evaluate the relative success of
treatments. This has been carried out using an experimental design similar to those commonly
used in industrial and medical research (2).
This study forms part of a larger research project reviewing our approach to the conservation of
archaeological leather. It is hoped that other aspects of the leather treatment process will be
investigated by the authors over the next few years
