Tag Archives: Al-Ubaid

#Transformation Tuesday: Getting our Ducks in a Row

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The transforming treatment of the Al’Ubaid frieze of three birds (B15883) from the new Middle East Galleries in now complete! (To be more correct, they are probably doves not ducks.) More information about the frieze can be found here. Click here for more information on the exciting new galleries, opening this April!

The frieze before treatment

The frieze after treatment

Originally, the three stone birds (initially called ducks but now identified as doves) would have been surrounded by black shale tesserae and the borders would have been copper alloy sheets. The frieze would have originally looked much like the marching bulls frieze. Unfortunately, neither the shale pieces nor the copper alloy borders made it. The birds had been embedded in a plaster background carved to look like the shale tesserae, and the borders were made from modern machined copper alloy sheets.

The old support system had to be removed due to some condition issues and to prepare the frieze for long-term exhibition. Once taken off, the grimy birds could then be laser-cleaned. The blog post about laser-cleaning them can be found here.

Applying the bulked Paraloid B-72 to the Ethafoam© support

Although the only ‘real’ parts were the stone birds, the curator wanted the entire frieze to be reconstructed to help visitors put the birds in context. It will be displayed next to the marching bull frieze.

After cleaning, the birds were adhered onto a piece of dense archival foam. The black tesserae background was created with Paraloid B-72 (ethyl methacrylate and methyl acrylate copolymer) bulked with glass microballoons and toned with dry pigments. Bulked Paraloid B-72 is stable, reversible, and easily manipulated with either solvent or heat. The shallow lines to make it appear there are tesserae were put in with a heated spatula. The copper alloy borders were also created with Ethafoam© coated in bulked Paraloid B-72 tinted in various shades of green to mimic copper corrosion. The fills in the ducks were inpainted with acrylics to integrate them better.

After all that, the ducks look much happier!

The frieze after treatment and ready for display

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Laser cleaning a trio of birds

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In addition to the frieze of 6 bulls (which we are still working on in the Artifact Lab), we are also treating a frieze of 3 birds, in preparation for our new Middle Eastern Galleries, scheduled to open in April 2018.

B15883, frieze of 3 birds before treatment

This is a section of a frieze from the site of Al-Ubaid, Iraq which was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley in the early 1920s. The birds are the only original pieces of the frieze – the rest is a modern reproduction. The birds (possibly doves?) were carved from limestone and each has a pair of drill holes at their center which would have served as an attachment point. Copper alloy twists would have been used to secure the birds in antiquity – fragments of the original copper remain in one of them.

Due to structural stability issues in the modern reproduction, we needed to disassemble the entire frieze. Once the birds were removed, it was evident that their surfaces were very grimy, related to both the burial environment and time in museum storage. A variety of cleaning methods were explored and tested, but none worked better than using our laser.

One of the birds, after removal and before cleaning

The Conservation Department purchased a Compact Phoenix Nd:YAG laser several years ago, and we are still learning about all of its possible applications. We recently had a workshop with conservator and laser-guru Adam Jenkins, which helped us further develop some testing and health and safety protocols.

Essentially, the Nd:YAG laser works like this: the laser emits a beam of light, typically with a wavelength of 1064 nm (in the infrared), which selectively irradiates and removes unwanted dirt and surface coatings without damaging the object (a process called laser ablation). This type of laser cleaning works well for removing dark substances from light-colored objects, so trying it on one of the birds made a lot of sense.

Easy for me to say. I didn’t do this treatment – project conservator Madeleine Neiman did. So she gets all the credit for this.

After testing, Madeleine carried out her first laser cleaning treatment on the bird in the image below. Here she is getting set up to carry out the work:

And here is a shot of the bird after the surface was partially cleaned: (WOW!)

I think the process and results are best displayed in a gif, or a video, so I’m including the gif below, and here is a link to the video.

Go Madeleine! I think this was a really rewarding treatment to carry out. Please take note of all of the PPE (personal protective equipment) involved, including special eyeware and ventilation.