Treasures of Portuguese Archaeology (1)

PAPER, ARCHEOSCIENCES

• Isabel Tissot^a, Matthias Tissot^a, Pedro Pedroso^a and Luís Raposo^b. 2009. "Treasures of Portuguese archaeology. Notes towards a preventive conservation project", ArcheoSciences, 33 | 2009, DOI: 10.4000/archeosciences.2504.
  Treasures of Portuguese archaeology. Notes towards a preventive conservation project
  
  ^{a Archeofactu  b Portuguese National Museum of Archaeology}
  

^{Abstract
The permanent exhibition “Treasures of Portuguese Archaeology” from the National Archaeological Museum is composed mainly by gold and silver artefacts which present an extensive surface corrosion. The construction of the exhibition room dates from the late ‘80s and it was conceived with higher security standards but, at that time, it was still unknown the importance of the choice of compatible materials and equipments to exhibit metal artefacts, and the influence in the corrosion development, even from the gold objects, if it was selected an inaccurate material. Preventive conservation directives and actions have been developed since then and presently one can assist to new paradigms from the exhibition and preservation of artefacts and moreover of cultural heritage. It was set-up a preventive conservation project, which is in the beginning, with the objective of identifying and understanding the pathologies observed, in order to correct the failures of the exhibition room. The article presents an overall view of the project, the description of the alterations observed, the proposed methods to apply to obtain the results for the causes endeavouring a thoroughly analysis, in order to correct the room fragilities.}