Field Conservation at Sadana Island 1996
By Howard Wellman

From The INA Quarterly 23.4 (1996)

INA-Egypt's 1996 excavation season at Sadana Island yielded more than 1500 registered artifacts and bulk finds of porcelain, earthenware, copper alloy, and various organic materials. All this material was excavated, raised, and given preliminary conservation during the 11-week field season.

Conservation should be a major concern on all marine excavations, since artifacts can suffer greatly from the radical change of their environment. Waterlogged organic materials can dry out quickly, causing irreparable cracking and shrinkage, while the pressures of salt crystallization can literally explode ceramics. The affect of the change from anoxic waterlogged conditions to oxygen-rich, dry conditions was only increased by the desert conditions at Sadana Island. Daytime temperatures usually reached 30-40 C, while the drying effects of almost constant winds were increased by relative humidity that ranged from about 20- 45% (except in the conservation tent, where it usually seemed to exceed 90%!). The problems were compounded by the high degree of salts in the Red Sea (and by extension, in the artifacts), which is estimated to be about 6-8% more saline than typical ocean waters.

Aims
The conservation team consisted of INA-Egypt staff conservator Howard Wellman and Tanja Roskar, a volunteer on leave from the conservation unit at the University of Trondheim, Norway. Our aims at Sadana Island were to mitigate the effects of the environmental changes, while enabling the archaeologists to obtain initial data from the artifacts that could effect the ongoing excavation. Most of the conservation could be described as "First Aid", though some of it was definitely aimed at reducing the amount of work that would have to be done later in the Alexandria Conservation Laboratory for Submerged Antiquities (see INA Quarterly 23.2).

Stabilization was the first concern. The artifacts had to be kept wet to prevent damage by shrinkage or salt crystallization. This was accomplished by building two brick and concrete storage tanks where the objects could be held, and where artifact cleaning could take place. These tanks were filled with the rising tide, and the occasional boost from a bucket brigade.

Physical support was given to delicate or decayed materials in order to minimize the possibility of mechanical damage once the artifacts were removed from the support of the water. Stabilization also factored into our plans for packing the objects for transport across 700km of desert and urban roads to their new home at the National Maritime Museum in Alexandria. Various plans and schemes for "containerization" of the various objects were tested in order to make the packing units as durable and resistant to physical shock as possible, while still maintaining the moist environment needed by the objects.

Our second concern was to reveal as much information about these objects as possible so that the excavation team would be able to use freshly excavated objects to guide the ongoing interpretation of the site. Most objects were cleaned of obscuring calcareous concretion, but only enough to expose diagnostic forms and decorative elements ("investigative cleaning"). Removing massive concretion also aided the aim of stabilization, since it could reduce an artifact's weight and volume by 100-200%, making it easier and safer to handle and pack. This also allowed the conservators time to inspect each object more closely, identify potential conservation problems, and make notes for future treatments. Conservation records were kept on all the objects processed on site.

The team photographers were then able to produce black and white photographs of every registered artifact for the excavation catalog and the official Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities' site register. Illustrators and cataloguers also benefitted, since it allowed them to better judge the special characteristics of each object. The e holding tanks at all hours using air-scribes to remove the larger masses of concretion. Douglas Haldane and Emad Khalil especially put in heroic hours battling the concretion on a tide of 750 earthenware water jugs (qulal) that threatened to fill the tanks to overflowing, while the flotation crew under Dr. Cheryl Haldane Ward was swamped by bags of qulal contents that had to be floated and sieved.

Techniques
Most of the work done at Sadana Island used very basic techniques of mechanical cleaning and support. The lack of fresh water prevented the use of chemical cleaning and stabilization methods that require extensive washing afterwards. As noted above, the gross removal of concretion was performed with air-scribes, while the final cleaning for illustration and photography was done with scalpels. In the course of the summer, the conservators trained approximately 25 volunteers and archaeologists in basic mechanical cleaning techniques for earthenware, porcelain, glass, and copper. The more delicate materials such as organic remains and inscribed or painted surfaces were handled by the conservators.

A subsidiary part of cleaning was the removal and sieving of vessel contents. Although the qulal were assumed to have been shipped empty as cargo, they had filled with sediment and small fragments of the vessel's organic cargo. By emptying each jar, their weight was not only significantly reduced, but the archaeobotanical team found examples of hazelnuts, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, and coffee beans among other things. These delicate organic materials were stored in sealed jars full of sea water for transport to the Laboratory.

Many of the copper alloy vessels (pans, basins, cauldrons and trays) were highly corroded and very fragile. For these objects particularly, cleaning was considered of secondary importance to physical support. The objects were bound and supported with strips and pads of polyethylene foam, sometimes lashed to rigid supports. This allowed the objects to be handled for photography and transport.

The packing scheme for transport was adapted from the successful plan devised the previous year by Douglas Haldane. Artifacts were packed in plastic perforated crates with sufficient foam padding and wet wrapping to prevent physical damage. These crates (plus basins of objects that could not be removed from the water) were then stacked onto the Project Landrover and a flat-bed truck loaned to the Project by Arab Contractors, Inc. A plastic bubble was created by lining the truck bed with polyethylene sheet and wet polyurethane foam mattresses, on which the crates were stacked. The rest of the plastic sheet was then wrapped over and around the stack of crates and basins, and lashed down and sealed tight. In this way, a humid environment was provided that lasted for the entire 14-hour drive from the site to Alexandria, where the crates were unloaded into the storage tanks at the National Maritime Museum.

Small and delicate objects such as tobacco pipes, porcelain coffee cups and waterlogged organic materials were "containerized" in one-liter plastic sealable boxes with interior padding. These were then sealed into plastic trash bags and placed in cardboard boxes. These boxes could then be placed in the truck outside the plastic bubble where more care could be taken of their disposition. They were transferred directly to the main Laboratory building for more immediate care, rather than being placed in the main storage tanks with the bulk of the finds.

But not all the excavated materials were raised to the surface, or transported to Alexandria. After the thrill of finding the first eight waterlogged coconuts wore off, it was decided that the other thirty were probably better off remaining on the site for future recovery, rather than risking the trip to Alexandria. Once proper treatments for these unique finds have been designed, we can consider lifting the remainder. They were bagged with their identifying context labels, placed in a hollow in the sand, covered with inverted crates, then covered with plastic sheeting and sand.

Other materials, such as qulal, rope, and the ship's timbers were also left unlifted. These were all cached at the end of the season by various means. A length of rope, too delicate to lift without further care and thought, was carefully fastened down to the sand and timber substrate by spreading nylon mosquito netting over it, and pinning the net down with sharpened bicycle spokes. A notice about the fragile object below was stitched to the netting, and the whole was covered with sand, polyethylene sheet, and more sand. It was hoped that this combination would both create anoxic conditions necessary for the rope's survival, and deter sport divers from interfering with it.

Achievements
In a thrill-packed, stress-filled, 11 weeks, the conservators and team members at Sadana Island managed to process, pack, and deliver safely over 1500 artifacts and bulk finds. In the process we were able to identify future project needs, and plan some interesting conservation research projects. The conservators were able to satisfy the curiosity of team members about different aspects of conservation, and perhaps guide one or two towards university courses in the field. We also proved that conservators can in fact spend far more time in the water than anyone else, and develop far more interesting infections and rashes.

Acknowledgements
The 1996 Sadana Island Shipwreck excavation was supported by generous donations from the Brock Foundation, the Amoco Foundation, The Arab Contractors, and numerous other donors. Significant work, both in excavation and conservation, was done by a hard-working team of volunteers, INA-Egypt staff, members of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and the Egyptian Navy. I personally want to thank Tanja Roskar, Melissa Zabecki, Julie Eklund, Louise Fisher, David Harrison, Emad Khalil, Adel Farouk, Meredith Kato and Jan Borg for their hard work and moral support. The directors of INA-Egypt and the Sadana Island Shipwreck excavation, Dr Cheryl Haldane Ward and Douglas Haldane, get my sincere thanks for putting up with endless questions and nit-picking.