Saturday, June 19, 2010

Welcome to Gordion Conservation!


The site of Gordion, located in Central Turkey, has been excavated extensively since 1950. The site is located about an hour away from Ankara, in the town of Yassihöyük. General information about the site can be found at Digital Gordion.

There is a long history of conservation at Gordion, having been pioneered by Ellen Kohler in the 1950s. Objects conservation at the site has been operating since 1988, and many talented conservators have assisted in the analysis and treatment of excavated materials. This summer, Jessica Johnson, who has worked at the site since 1989, is heading conservation at Gordion. Graduate students Emily Hamilton (Buffalo State College '11) and Elizabeth Drolet (UCLA/Getty '12) are working as interns, learning about conservation at the site and helping with the maintenance and treatment of objects from the excavations.

This summer the conservation season will last from June 14th to July 16th. During that time we'll be working on projects ranging from the condition survey of displayed objects at the Gordion site museum, to treatment of a stone altar and the monitoring of conditions with the Midas Tumulus. This blog will share information about current and past conservation at Gordion, and some of the specific conservation projects we're working on at the site. More to come soon!






2 comments:

  1. Hi everyone,

    Jessie said she'd post this, but I don't have her email address. Ayse Gürsan Salzmann and I spoke to the Polatlı municipality about preserving the historical and cultural landscape at Gordion (as plowing and irrigation are seriously eating into the tumuli and also just the traditional pasture lands, which house an amazing amount of biodiversity. We made the Polatlı press (Istiklal) and were picked up by the Ankara insert for the nationally distributed paper "Cumhuriyet" (functional equivalent quality-wise of the NY Times). Here's the link to the Cumhuriyet 'Il Gazetisi' article:

    The title is 'Fields are destroying history'
    http://www.ilgazetesi.com.tr/2012/07/05/tarlalar-tarihi-yok-ediyor/0134727/

    I have a pdf of the Istiklal article, which could be posted if Jessie sends me her contact info.

    That's it for now. Naomi

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  2. Great Blog! your methods of conservation are very interesting. it was a delight reading this blog.
    Keep up the great work!

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