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An International Symposium organized by the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations and the Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Koç University, took place in Istanbul on 14 - 15th November 2008. Through its topic, The Challenges of Conservation in Archaeology, Architecture and Museums: Turkey and Beyond, the symposium covered a wide range of actual issues important for the future of conservation field in Turkey, from both the philosophical and technical point of view. As Jerry Prodany from J.P. Getty Museum was saying in his keynote speech, Turkey is facing a big challenge in finding its own way of dealing with the immense and varied amount of heritage and its preservation. Therefore, such a symposium which gathered specialist speakers from all over the world was very inspiring and welcomed.
Alessandra Ricci - associate Director RCAC, Prof. Dr. Sami Gülgöz – dean, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Koç University and Ismail Karamut - director of the Archaeological Museum addressed the symposium’s welcoming message, emphasizing its main goal of understanding the importance of a comprehensive view in dealing with such a variety of heritage - monuments, artifacts and excavations that are taken place in living cities.
In his keynote speech - “Why and for whom: Professionalism and Change in Conservation”, Jerry Prodany made a brief history of conservation following the evolution of the terminology and its principles, raising questions regarding the definition of heritage values, for whose memory we preserve it and for how long we plan to: one generation, many, millenniums? He spoke about how, all those problems, together with the context or object’s symbolism, are influencing the conservation approach. Trying to analyze Turkey situation he pointed out that conservation must be dynamic, even though “Charters are important in unifying our effort” they must be in concordance with the specificity of the country and its heritage. Concerning Turkey’s issues he took into account the complexity of the country where tourism is a national resource and thus, heritage is “consumed” by huge amounts of visitors (24 millions in 2007). Therefore “it can not be just one model that Turkey can look at, within the envelope of EU it must find its own solutions” to improve its management and maintenance in handling its cultural heritage. The presentation was followed by animated discussions about the significance of interdisciplinary work in the conservation field, the necessity of specialists and professional organizations. Alessandra Rossi made an interesting parallel regarding the need of a wide view approaching when dealing with heritage preservation. Giving an example from archaeology where there are different ways of quarrying, either digging “holes” or working in wide excavation - “cliff approaching”, she draw attention to the fact that monuments are sometimes regarded as simple built heritage, loosing thus their authenticity given by the whole contextual factors of the site. The symposium had three sections covering the architecture, wall paintings and archaeological conservation. Each section had interesting presentations done by specialists invited from all over the world, giving thus various examples and different points of view and making possible the ideas exchange. During the section concerning the architecture conservation there were three talks covering different issues. The case study presented by Martin Bachmann from German Archaeological Institute, discussed the “Recent Restoration Work of the DAI in Pergamon“ which was opened for public in 2004. The presentation “Consolidation of Natural Stones used in the Facades of Dolmabahçe Palace” done by Ahmet Ersen, Istanbul Teknik Universitesi (ITU) focused on the experimental work aimed to research the efficacy of the consolidants by evaluating the changes in the physical properties of the untreated and treated samples of the respective tuff stones. An ample talk regarding “On site and Laboratory Investigation for the Diagnosis of Historic Buildings” was given by Luigia Binda from Politecnico di Milano. Through the examples presented from Italy and Vietnam she highlighted the necessity of a ”better knowledge of the materials and the structure of the buildings” for enhancing the quality of the interventions. The use of modern materials and technologies were proved to be inadequate during recent earthquakes due to the incompatibility with the original ones. Even more, the presentation was very interesting giving a very good systematization of the ways of designing the structural investigations, diagnosis and new procedures for investigation. The wall painting conservation section comprised two talks from the Turkish part. A case study regarding the restoration works done in 2007-2008 campaign on the wall paintings from the Old Andaval Church of Constantine and Helena in Nigde was presented by Fazli Açikgöz from Nigde Muzeum. Gülseren Dikilitaş, a freelance conservator, made an assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding identification of the degradation and the passive conservation of the wall paintings from archaeological sites in Turkey. Image 1. A view from the presentation of Martin Bachmann from DAI, Alman Arkeoloji Enstitütü, entitled"Recent Restoration work of the DAI in Pergamon”. Image 2. Luigia Binda, Politecnico di Milano, “On site and Laboratory Investigation for the Diagnosis of Historic Buildings”. Image 3. Fazlı Açıkgöz, Niğde Müzesi, “The 2007-2008 Documentation, Conservation and Restoration Works of the Wall Paintings of the Old Andaval Church of Constantine and Helena in Niğde”.
Image 4. Hande Kökten, Ankara Üniversitesi, “ Conservation at Archaeological Excavation: Sharing Responsibilities or Not?”
Image 5. Claudia Tedeschi, School for Restoration of Mosaic, Ravenna, “Mosaic Conservation between Knowledge and Operative Methods”
A very interesting paper was presented by Andy Holbrook, Collection care manager from the Imperial War Museum, London (UK): “Conservation and Conservation: A brief report on how IWM (Imperial War Museum) and UK Museums are beginning to tackle environmental management in a climate of global warming”. The project demonstrated how it is possible to achieve a sustainable environment through cheaper, more efficient and effective means. Without using sophisticated high tech equipment or interventions, the problem of environmental management was solved through simple passive solutions after a systematic and meticulous research of the space (the museums buildings are usually converted to meet the necessity of a museum and therefore not very efficient) and of the exterior and interior environment and possibilities, causes and effects. He showed that, in the case of the Imperial War Museum, only by blocking up the windows and insulating them on both sides, the stabilization of the microclimate, easy to be controlled in a professional way, and the reduction of the energy losses were achieved. Ending the successful symposium, Orkan Köyağasiöğlu from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), Turkey, spoke about “Conservation and study of ancient shipwrecks: The importance of conservation in understanding ancient ship construction and reassembling of shipwrecks”. Showing how important is the cooperation between archaeologists and conservators on the excavation sites for better understanding of the technologies and best treatment solutions, he highlighted once again the importance of the interdisciplinary work in a conservation and research project.
Thus, the symposium concluded in the breathtaking Yenikapı site, where the attendance had the extraordinary chance to experience and recall its topic, “Challenges of Conservation in Archaeology, Architecture and Museums”. ▲TOP
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