New SCA/INA-Egypt Conservation Laboratory Nears Completion
By Cheryl Haldane Ward, Ph.D.

From El Bahri 2, 1996

Alexandria served as the main port of Egypt for thousands of years, drawing merchant ships from Russia, Italy, the Levant and many other nations because of the rich and varied cargo that could be obtained there. Spices, fabrics, dyes and other chemicals, fine pottery, wine and grain are only a few of the goods ship owners and captains sought.

INA-Egypt's headquarters are in Alexandria, in part because of this long history of maritime trade, but also because Egypt's National Maritime Museum is there. The Maritime Museum occupies seafront property, almost half a city block, and it is the former residence of a member of Egypt's royal family. Two large buildings serve as offices and exhibit halls, but the outbuildings attracted our interest from the first visit we made to the site.

These buildings include a former greenhouse, three-car garage, and staff living quarters. Since conservation of waterlogged artifacts requires large amounts of empty space that will survive constant wetting, these seemed perfect for a laboratory dedicated to the conservation of waterlogged materials. We also appreciated the large open area between the buildings and a wall as a site for storage tanks.

After a series of planning meetings with members of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (the SCA), we settled on an ambitious, but manageable, scheme for renovating five buildings. The five buildings will become laboratories for small and large artifact cleaning and preservation, equipment storage centers, a workshop that can be converted for the preservation of large artifacts such as ship's timbers, and a documentation center for both written and visual recording.

The buildings renovated by INA-Egypt at its own expense will be used on a permanent basis in cooperation with the SCA for the conservation and preservation of waterlogged antiquities from both land and underwater archaeological sites. The Alexandria Conservation Laboratory for Submerged Antiquities will also be a center for sharing information with Egyptian conservators about the special needs of wet objects.

The Maritime Museum conservation laboratory will be closely associated with the lab dedicated to metals conservation that was provided by the French Navy team working at Abu Kir, the site of a Napoleonic naval battle.

Acknowledgments
As always, funding projects like this requires the cooperation of many organizations and individuals. The SCA and its dedicated staff, especially Chairman Abdel Halim Nur el Din and Greco-Roman Museum Director Madame Doreya Said and Museums Director A. Nuwar, spent long hours pouring over proposals and refining plans.

We are particularly grateful to Bechtel Corporation for assistance with architectural estimates for work at the Museum and consultations about the requirements of renovation and to the Alexandria Businessmen's Association, which donated a beautiful, wave-patterned gate for trucks carrying ancient cargo into a modern laboratory. Arab Contractors provided invaluable assistance by loaning trucks for hauling away construction debris from the buildings.

Major funding for the renovation has been provided by the Egyptian Antiquities Project, The Amoco Foundation, the Alexanian Foundation, Billings Ruddock, and Richard and Bari Bienia. In addition, the American Research Center in Egypt continues to provide us with support through sharing facilities, and through discussions with its Cairo Director Mark Easton.