Monitoring the Environment of the Re-burial Site at Marstrand.

Insitution:
National Museum of Denmark
Brede, Lyngby, PostBox 2600 , Denmark.

Co-ordinator
Dr. David Gregory, Scientist.
Tel: 00 45 46 32 16 00, Fax: 00 45 46 32 24 77,
e-mail: david.john.gregory@natmus.dk

Partners
The Conservation Department of the National Museum of Denmark, Brede, Lyngby, Post Box 2600, Denmark.

Aim
A programme of environmental monitoring will be carried out to complement the other sub projects in the re-burial programme. The other sub projects seek to analyse the deterioration of a range of modern materials placed in conjunction with the archaeological materials. To complement these analyses a programme of monitoring will be initiated to assess the re-burial environment. In the first instance, this will be carried out between 2002 - 2003 concurrently with the other sub projects in the programme. The premise for re-burial as a valid method of preserving archaeological artefacts is that it seeks to emulate the conditions of the pre-excavated environment. That archaeological finds in marine sediments are well preserved is primarily attributed to reduced levels of oxygen. Parameters, which give a good indication of these conditions, are dissolved oxygen, sulphide, pH and redox potential. By measuring these parameters at the re-burial site and comparing them with a 'control' undisturbed area it will be possible to determine whether or not the re-burial site does emulate the pre-excavated environment. Furthermore, it will be possible to correlate the aforementioned parameters with the measured deterioration of the control materials placed in the various re-burial trenches. Through such a correlation it will be possible to evaluate the use of re-burial as a valid method of preserving archaeological remains.

Method
Monitoring of the environment
This will be conducted in three ways. First, for shallow depths (1-10cm) within the sediment, a series of microelectrodes will be used to measure directly in situ. For greater depths (10 - 60cm) a series of core samples will be taken the microelectrodes used to determine the aforementioned parameters on the surface. The above methods are effectively "spot" measurements. In order to obtain long term changes, a datalogger measuring the same parameters will be placed in the reburial mound and data logged daily. It is envisaged that the re-burial site will be visited during the Spring, Summer Autumn and Winter in the initial phase of the re-burial so as to record the initial changes in the re-burial environment and also any seasonal fluctuations

Analyses
Results from the in situ measurements will be obtained in real time and will require little post processing. Core samples will need to be analysed at the Conservation department of the National Museum of Denmark. The data from the data logger will be collected every three months and processed at the Conservation Department on the National Museum of Denmark.

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Work in progress and results 2004

Work in progress and results 2003

David Gregory