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872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 112
e conservationthe online magazine No 18 February 2011
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 212
A REFLECTION ON THE PREVENTIVE
CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
AND THE EFFECTS OF MASS TOURISM
The Case Study of the Vasa Warship
By Cristina Cabello‐Briones
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 312
Introduction
Tourism is and must be acceptable for any museum
However large‐scale tourism has a direct nega‐
tive effect on collections such as that of the Vasa
Museum Although it is clear that environmental
conditions affect archaeological wood preventive
conservation of such collections has not been ex‐
tensively considered Wooden shipwrecks have
been studied from several perspectives mainly in
research that refers to material degradation and
new treatments The main objective of this articleis to raise public awareness of this topic and high‐
light the benefits of a well planned preventive
conservation strategy in order to safeguard ar‐
chaeological wooden cultural artefacts Before
analysing the example of the Vasa Museum a
brief description of the effects of environment
and tourism on archaeological wood and an in‐
troduction to preventive conservation manage‐
ment are presented
Preventive Conservation of Archaeological Wood
Wood equilibrates with its environment If the sur‐
rounding conditions change wood reacts to the
abundance or absence of moisture in the air and
will expand or contract Thomson [1] recommen‐
ded 19‐24 degC and 45‐55 RH as ideal conditions
for the museum environment housing unpainted
wooden objects At lower RH values wood cracks
becomes brittle and shrinks Above 65 RH mold
growth is promoted and swelling increases Main‐
taining the relative humidity between 50‐60
reduces most of the visible damage However Mi‐
chalski [2] reminds us that the specifications for
temperature and humidity in related literature rep‐
resent the lowest common denominator amongst
the needs of objects and not necessarily the op‐
timum for each Each case needs to be analysed
individually and on many occasions this means
testing the decisions in practice
When an object is mechanically stable most dam‐age is due to RH fluctuations These can eventu‐
ally lead to cracking checking and warping of the
wooden artefact In addition fast changes in rel‐
ative humidity cause internal stresses due to dif‐
ferences of moisture between inner and outer
areas [3 p 34] Therefore an ideal environment
is achieved when no cyclic variations occur Slight
shifts are permitted if the change is slow varying
at maximum over plusmn5 range [4 p 269]
Relating to temperature every 10 degC increase
doubles the average rate of organic reactions [3
p 40] Therefore lower temperature levels (15‐
20 degC) slow these rates and offer a comfortable
environment to visitors
Light affects wood in several ways The most severe
damages are connected with chemical bond break‐
age free radical formation and the subsequent
depolymerisation of polymers In addition wood
44 e‐conservation
Archaeological wood is an organic material sensitive to environmental conditions Wood even when
treated with polyethylene glycols adapts to the surrounding environment with physical and chemical
reactions that may be detrimental to its preservation In addition excessive tourism has a negative
effect on the museum environment once its indoor conditions fluctuate directly with the number of visitors
In order to minimize the effects of a negative climate caused by mass tourism on archaeological wood
collections preventive conservation measures should be taken To illustrate an effective preventive
conservation management the case of the Vasa museum in Stockholm which houses the 386 years old
Vasa warship is discussed
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 412
that has been exposed to the visible and ultra‐
violet wavelengths radiation of daylight under‐
goes colour change [5] Experts agree on a range
between 300 and 50 lux as appropriate for safe
display although lighting between 200 and 50 lux
should be used for severely deteriorated objects
considering that 50 lux is the minimum level re‐
quired for colour perception and adequate visi‐
bility [4 p 268]
Treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has be‐
come the most common application for the pre‐
servation of many kinds of waterlogged wooden
remains The technique involves the impregnation
of wood with PEG solutions so that the water in the
cell walls is replaced by the preservative The pro‐
cess is focused on thestabilisation of thetimbersrsquo
dimensions and bulking of the wood structure
Highly degraded wood treated with PEG changes
its dimension regularly according to the relative
humidity though its range of change is smallerthan that of sound wood [6] For wood treated
with any molecular weight of PEG unless it is con‐
tinually recoated exposure to high RH (higher
than 60) will make the surface sticky and could
leach out the impregnant [7] In addition PEG is
hygroscopic and transports ions and dissolved
oxygen within the treated wood when there are
humidity fluctuations causing both physical and
chemical problems [8]
Impact of Large‐scale Tourism on the Cultural
Heritage
Tourism affects tangible heritage in several and
diverse ways visitors release heat water vapour
and carbon dioxide they transport external par‐
ticles and the accumulation of dust can lead to
further cleaning that may damage surfaces they
also generate turbulence which increases the
deposition rate of particulate matter [9 pp 127‐
140] In addition a large number of people visit
museums on rainy days and their wet coats intro‐
duce additional moisture
Although it is difficult to differentiate between in‐
door environmental variations causedby visitors and
the effects of outdoor climate it is clear that the
way tourism in museums is organised nowadays
has a direct connexion with environmental fluctu‐
ations An adult releases approximately 60 grams
of water vapour per hour and 60 watts per square
metre of body surface as heat [10 p 20] affecting
ambient relative humidity Negative environmental
condition cycles are related to successive waves
of tourists who access the museum For example
measurements in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna during and after the Bruegel exhibition
in 1998 showed an increase in heat and moisture
directly caused by the tourism flows [9 p 132]
To avoid the collection itself andor the building
acting as buffer elements environmental control systems must cope with these sudden stresses
maintaining a constant climate during and after
the visiting hours
Preventive Conservation Management
Although large‐scale visitor access involves risk
for cultural objects the public is necessary to
keep a museum open A large number of visitorsincreases the prestige of a museum and ensures
funding as demonstrated by the Delphi survey of
owners and managers of historic properties across
the United Kingdom [11] The survey shows that
the highest ranked criterion for priority in fund‐
ing is related to the lsquosignificancersquo of the heritage
This is measured through its uniqueness and rel‐
evance for the community as well as its public
appeal However pressures imposed by visitors
are not considered to be a major criterion for de‐
termining conservation funding
45e‐conservation
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 512
Mass tourism is an economic resource and in the
context of indoor climate the key is to achieve the
right balance between the increasing demand for
access and the need to protect the cultural herit‐
age itself
Different measures can be carried out to reduce
the impact of tourism Not including the cultural
objectsite in promotional material could reduce
the awareness of the attraction [12] Another
solution could be to display the most valuable
objects of a collection in showcases or substitute
them with replicas However display cases are
not always the best conservation solution [13]
and ethical issues as authenticity provenance
and context could arise [14] According to Young
and Cassar [15] the type of measure depends on
the uniqueness and vulnerability of the cultural
artefact its local or international importance
the ability to make facsimiles the rate of degrada‐
tion from environmental conditions and the quality
of the protective environment
In these days of rising cost and lack of funding
preventive conservation management is the best
option According to Cassarrsquos definition preventive
conservation management is ldquothe creation and
maintenance of an environment that limits the
decay of museum objects to theabsolute minimum
consistent with public accessrdquo [10 p 3] A pre‐
servation plan allows the analysis of deteriorating
environmental conditions caused by the influx of
tourist and developing a strategy to protect the
cultural artefacts Additionally environmental
monitoring is a reliable source of information that
can be used to assess risks and understand dam‐
ages and impacts
Case Study Preventive Conservation of the
Vasa Warship
The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
Vasa (figure 1) to be built in 1625 due to the Thirty
Years War Although a number of different tree
species were used in the Vasa 90 of the weight
46 e‐conservation
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
Figure 1 The Vasa warship Photo by Anneli Karlsson the Swedish National Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 212
A REFLECTION ON THE PREVENTIVE
CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
AND THE EFFECTS OF MASS TOURISM
The Case Study of the Vasa Warship
By Cristina Cabello‐Briones
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 312
Introduction
Tourism is and must be acceptable for any museum
However large‐scale tourism has a direct nega‐
tive effect on collections such as that of the Vasa
Museum Although it is clear that environmental
conditions affect archaeological wood preventive
conservation of such collections has not been ex‐
tensively considered Wooden shipwrecks have
been studied from several perspectives mainly in
research that refers to material degradation and
new treatments The main objective of this articleis to raise public awareness of this topic and high‐
light the benefits of a well planned preventive
conservation strategy in order to safeguard ar‐
chaeological wooden cultural artefacts Before
analysing the example of the Vasa Museum a
brief description of the effects of environment
and tourism on archaeological wood and an in‐
troduction to preventive conservation manage‐
ment are presented
Preventive Conservation of Archaeological Wood
Wood equilibrates with its environment If the sur‐
rounding conditions change wood reacts to the
abundance or absence of moisture in the air and
will expand or contract Thomson [1] recommen‐
ded 19‐24 degC and 45‐55 RH as ideal conditions
for the museum environment housing unpainted
wooden objects At lower RH values wood cracks
becomes brittle and shrinks Above 65 RH mold
growth is promoted and swelling increases Main‐
taining the relative humidity between 50‐60
reduces most of the visible damage However Mi‐
chalski [2] reminds us that the specifications for
temperature and humidity in related literature rep‐
resent the lowest common denominator amongst
the needs of objects and not necessarily the op‐
timum for each Each case needs to be analysed
individually and on many occasions this means
testing the decisions in practice
When an object is mechanically stable most dam‐age is due to RH fluctuations These can eventu‐
ally lead to cracking checking and warping of the
wooden artefact In addition fast changes in rel‐
ative humidity cause internal stresses due to dif‐
ferences of moisture between inner and outer
areas [3 p 34] Therefore an ideal environment
is achieved when no cyclic variations occur Slight
shifts are permitted if the change is slow varying
at maximum over plusmn5 range [4 p 269]
Relating to temperature every 10 degC increase
doubles the average rate of organic reactions [3
p 40] Therefore lower temperature levels (15‐
20 degC) slow these rates and offer a comfortable
environment to visitors
Light affects wood in several ways The most severe
damages are connected with chemical bond break‐
age free radical formation and the subsequent
depolymerisation of polymers In addition wood
44 e‐conservation
Archaeological wood is an organic material sensitive to environmental conditions Wood even when
treated with polyethylene glycols adapts to the surrounding environment with physical and chemical
reactions that may be detrimental to its preservation In addition excessive tourism has a negative
effect on the museum environment once its indoor conditions fluctuate directly with the number of visitors
In order to minimize the effects of a negative climate caused by mass tourism on archaeological wood
collections preventive conservation measures should be taken To illustrate an effective preventive
conservation management the case of the Vasa museum in Stockholm which houses the 386 years old
Vasa warship is discussed
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 412
that has been exposed to the visible and ultra‐
violet wavelengths radiation of daylight under‐
goes colour change [5] Experts agree on a range
between 300 and 50 lux as appropriate for safe
display although lighting between 200 and 50 lux
should be used for severely deteriorated objects
considering that 50 lux is the minimum level re‐
quired for colour perception and adequate visi‐
bility [4 p 268]
Treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has be‐
come the most common application for the pre‐
servation of many kinds of waterlogged wooden
remains The technique involves the impregnation
of wood with PEG solutions so that the water in the
cell walls is replaced by the preservative The pro‐
cess is focused on thestabilisation of thetimbersrsquo
dimensions and bulking of the wood structure
Highly degraded wood treated with PEG changes
its dimension regularly according to the relative
humidity though its range of change is smallerthan that of sound wood [6] For wood treated
with any molecular weight of PEG unless it is con‐
tinually recoated exposure to high RH (higher
than 60) will make the surface sticky and could
leach out the impregnant [7] In addition PEG is
hygroscopic and transports ions and dissolved
oxygen within the treated wood when there are
humidity fluctuations causing both physical and
chemical problems [8]
Impact of Large‐scale Tourism on the Cultural
Heritage
Tourism affects tangible heritage in several and
diverse ways visitors release heat water vapour
and carbon dioxide they transport external par‐
ticles and the accumulation of dust can lead to
further cleaning that may damage surfaces they
also generate turbulence which increases the
deposition rate of particulate matter [9 pp 127‐
140] In addition a large number of people visit
museums on rainy days and their wet coats intro‐
duce additional moisture
Although it is difficult to differentiate between in‐
door environmental variations causedby visitors and
the effects of outdoor climate it is clear that the
way tourism in museums is organised nowadays
has a direct connexion with environmental fluctu‐
ations An adult releases approximately 60 grams
of water vapour per hour and 60 watts per square
metre of body surface as heat [10 p 20] affecting
ambient relative humidity Negative environmental
condition cycles are related to successive waves
of tourists who access the museum For example
measurements in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna during and after the Bruegel exhibition
in 1998 showed an increase in heat and moisture
directly caused by the tourism flows [9 p 132]
To avoid the collection itself andor the building
acting as buffer elements environmental control systems must cope with these sudden stresses
maintaining a constant climate during and after
the visiting hours
Preventive Conservation Management
Although large‐scale visitor access involves risk
for cultural objects the public is necessary to
keep a museum open A large number of visitorsincreases the prestige of a museum and ensures
funding as demonstrated by the Delphi survey of
owners and managers of historic properties across
the United Kingdom [11] The survey shows that
the highest ranked criterion for priority in fund‐
ing is related to the lsquosignificancersquo of the heritage
This is measured through its uniqueness and rel‐
evance for the community as well as its public
appeal However pressures imposed by visitors
are not considered to be a major criterion for de‐
termining conservation funding
45e‐conservation
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 512
Mass tourism is an economic resource and in the
context of indoor climate the key is to achieve the
right balance between the increasing demand for
access and the need to protect the cultural herit‐
age itself
Different measures can be carried out to reduce
the impact of tourism Not including the cultural
objectsite in promotional material could reduce
the awareness of the attraction [12] Another
solution could be to display the most valuable
objects of a collection in showcases or substitute
them with replicas However display cases are
not always the best conservation solution [13]
and ethical issues as authenticity provenance
and context could arise [14] According to Young
and Cassar [15] the type of measure depends on
the uniqueness and vulnerability of the cultural
artefact its local or international importance
the ability to make facsimiles the rate of degrada‐
tion from environmental conditions and the quality
of the protective environment
In these days of rising cost and lack of funding
preventive conservation management is the best
option According to Cassarrsquos definition preventive
conservation management is ldquothe creation and
maintenance of an environment that limits the
decay of museum objects to theabsolute minimum
consistent with public accessrdquo [10 p 3] A pre‐
servation plan allows the analysis of deteriorating
environmental conditions caused by the influx of
tourist and developing a strategy to protect the
cultural artefacts Additionally environmental
monitoring is a reliable source of information that
can be used to assess risks and understand dam‐
ages and impacts
Case Study Preventive Conservation of the
Vasa Warship
The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
Vasa (figure 1) to be built in 1625 due to the Thirty
Years War Although a number of different tree
species were used in the Vasa 90 of the weight
46 e‐conservation
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
Figure 1 The Vasa warship Photo by Anneli Karlsson the Swedish National Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 312
Introduction
Tourism is and must be acceptable for any museum
However large‐scale tourism has a direct nega‐
tive effect on collections such as that of the Vasa
Museum Although it is clear that environmental
conditions affect archaeological wood preventive
conservation of such collections has not been ex‐
tensively considered Wooden shipwrecks have
been studied from several perspectives mainly in
research that refers to material degradation and
new treatments The main objective of this articleis to raise public awareness of this topic and high‐
light the benefits of a well planned preventive
conservation strategy in order to safeguard ar‐
chaeological wooden cultural artefacts Before
analysing the example of the Vasa Museum a
brief description of the effects of environment
and tourism on archaeological wood and an in‐
troduction to preventive conservation manage‐
ment are presented
Preventive Conservation of Archaeological Wood
Wood equilibrates with its environment If the sur‐
rounding conditions change wood reacts to the
abundance or absence of moisture in the air and
will expand or contract Thomson [1] recommen‐
ded 19‐24 degC and 45‐55 RH as ideal conditions
for the museum environment housing unpainted
wooden objects At lower RH values wood cracks
becomes brittle and shrinks Above 65 RH mold
growth is promoted and swelling increases Main‐
taining the relative humidity between 50‐60
reduces most of the visible damage However Mi‐
chalski [2] reminds us that the specifications for
temperature and humidity in related literature rep‐
resent the lowest common denominator amongst
the needs of objects and not necessarily the op‐
timum for each Each case needs to be analysed
individually and on many occasions this means
testing the decisions in practice
When an object is mechanically stable most dam‐age is due to RH fluctuations These can eventu‐
ally lead to cracking checking and warping of the
wooden artefact In addition fast changes in rel‐
ative humidity cause internal stresses due to dif‐
ferences of moisture between inner and outer
areas [3 p 34] Therefore an ideal environment
is achieved when no cyclic variations occur Slight
shifts are permitted if the change is slow varying
at maximum over plusmn5 range [4 p 269]
Relating to temperature every 10 degC increase
doubles the average rate of organic reactions [3
p 40] Therefore lower temperature levels (15‐
20 degC) slow these rates and offer a comfortable
environment to visitors
Light affects wood in several ways The most severe
damages are connected with chemical bond break‐
age free radical formation and the subsequent
depolymerisation of polymers In addition wood
44 e‐conservation
Archaeological wood is an organic material sensitive to environmental conditions Wood even when
treated with polyethylene glycols adapts to the surrounding environment with physical and chemical
reactions that may be detrimental to its preservation In addition excessive tourism has a negative
effect on the museum environment once its indoor conditions fluctuate directly with the number of visitors
In order to minimize the effects of a negative climate caused by mass tourism on archaeological wood
collections preventive conservation measures should be taken To illustrate an effective preventive
conservation management the case of the Vasa museum in Stockholm which houses the 386 years old
Vasa warship is discussed
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 412
that has been exposed to the visible and ultra‐
violet wavelengths radiation of daylight under‐
goes colour change [5] Experts agree on a range
between 300 and 50 lux as appropriate for safe
display although lighting between 200 and 50 lux
should be used for severely deteriorated objects
considering that 50 lux is the minimum level re‐
quired for colour perception and adequate visi‐
bility [4 p 268]
Treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has be‐
come the most common application for the pre‐
servation of many kinds of waterlogged wooden
remains The technique involves the impregnation
of wood with PEG solutions so that the water in the
cell walls is replaced by the preservative The pro‐
cess is focused on thestabilisation of thetimbersrsquo
dimensions and bulking of the wood structure
Highly degraded wood treated with PEG changes
its dimension regularly according to the relative
humidity though its range of change is smallerthan that of sound wood [6] For wood treated
with any molecular weight of PEG unless it is con‐
tinually recoated exposure to high RH (higher
than 60) will make the surface sticky and could
leach out the impregnant [7] In addition PEG is
hygroscopic and transports ions and dissolved
oxygen within the treated wood when there are
humidity fluctuations causing both physical and
chemical problems [8]
Impact of Large‐scale Tourism on the Cultural
Heritage
Tourism affects tangible heritage in several and
diverse ways visitors release heat water vapour
and carbon dioxide they transport external par‐
ticles and the accumulation of dust can lead to
further cleaning that may damage surfaces they
also generate turbulence which increases the
deposition rate of particulate matter [9 pp 127‐
140] In addition a large number of people visit
museums on rainy days and their wet coats intro‐
duce additional moisture
Although it is difficult to differentiate between in‐
door environmental variations causedby visitors and
the effects of outdoor climate it is clear that the
way tourism in museums is organised nowadays
has a direct connexion with environmental fluctu‐
ations An adult releases approximately 60 grams
of water vapour per hour and 60 watts per square
metre of body surface as heat [10 p 20] affecting
ambient relative humidity Negative environmental
condition cycles are related to successive waves
of tourists who access the museum For example
measurements in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna during and after the Bruegel exhibition
in 1998 showed an increase in heat and moisture
directly caused by the tourism flows [9 p 132]
To avoid the collection itself andor the building
acting as buffer elements environmental control systems must cope with these sudden stresses
maintaining a constant climate during and after
the visiting hours
Preventive Conservation Management
Although large‐scale visitor access involves risk
for cultural objects the public is necessary to
keep a museum open A large number of visitorsincreases the prestige of a museum and ensures
funding as demonstrated by the Delphi survey of
owners and managers of historic properties across
the United Kingdom [11] The survey shows that
the highest ranked criterion for priority in fund‐
ing is related to the lsquosignificancersquo of the heritage
This is measured through its uniqueness and rel‐
evance for the community as well as its public
appeal However pressures imposed by visitors
are not considered to be a major criterion for de‐
termining conservation funding
45e‐conservation
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 512
Mass tourism is an economic resource and in the
context of indoor climate the key is to achieve the
right balance between the increasing demand for
access and the need to protect the cultural herit‐
age itself
Different measures can be carried out to reduce
the impact of tourism Not including the cultural
objectsite in promotional material could reduce
the awareness of the attraction [12] Another
solution could be to display the most valuable
objects of a collection in showcases or substitute
them with replicas However display cases are
not always the best conservation solution [13]
and ethical issues as authenticity provenance
and context could arise [14] According to Young
and Cassar [15] the type of measure depends on
the uniqueness and vulnerability of the cultural
artefact its local or international importance
the ability to make facsimiles the rate of degrada‐
tion from environmental conditions and the quality
of the protective environment
In these days of rising cost and lack of funding
preventive conservation management is the best
option According to Cassarrsquos definition preventive
conservation management is ldquothe creation and
maintenance of an environment that limits the
decay of museum objects to theabsolute minimum
consistent with public accessrdquo [10 p 3] A pre‐
servation plan allows the analysis of deteriorating
environmental conditions caused by the influx of
tourist and developing a strategy to protect the
cultural artefacts Additionally environmental
monitoring is a reliable source of information that
can be used to assess risks and understand dam‐
ages and impacts
Case Study Preventive Conservation of the
Vasa Warship
The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
Vasa (figure 1) to be built in 1625 due to the Thirty
Years War Although a number of different tree
species were used in the Vasa 90 of the weight
46 e‐conservation
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
Figure 1 The Vasa warship Photo by Anneli Karlsson the Swedish National Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 412
that has been exposed to the visible and ultra‐
violet wavelengths radiation of daylight under‐
goes colour change [5] Experts agree on a range
between 300 and 50 lux as appropriate for safe
display although lighting between 200 and 50 lux
should be used for severely deteriorated objects
considering that 50 lux is the minimum level re‐
quired for colour perception and adequate visi‐
bility [4 p 268]
Treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has be‐
come the most common application for the pre‐
servation of many kinds of waterlogged wooden
remains The technique involves the impregnation
of wood with PEG solutions so that the water in the
cell walls is replaced by the preservative The pro‐
cess is focused on thestabilisation of thetimbersrsquo
dimensions and bulking of the wood structure
Highly degraded wood treated with PEG changes
its dimension regularly according to the relative
humidity though its range of change is smallerthan that of sound wood [6] For wood treated
with any molecular weight of PEG unless it is con‐
tinually recoated exposure to high RH (higher
than 60) will make the surface sticky and could
leach out the impregnant [7] In addition PEG is
hygroscopic and transports ions and dissolved
oxygen within the treated wood when there are
humidity fluctuations causing both physical and
chemical problems [8]
Impact of Large‐scale Tourism on the Cultural
Heritage
Tourism affects tangible heritage in several and
diverse ways visitors release heat water vapour
and carbon dioxide they transport external par‐
ticles and the accumulation of dust can lead to
further cleaning that may damage surfaces they
also generate turbulence which increases the
deposition rate of particulate matter [9 pp 127‐
140] In addition a large number of people visit
museums on rainy days and their wet coats intro‐
duce additional moisture
Although it is difficult to differentiate between in‐
door environmental variations causedby visitors and
the effects of outdoor climate it is clear that the
way tourism in museums is organised nowadays
has a direct connexion with environmental fluctu‐
ations An adult releases approximately 60 grams
of water vapour per hour and 60 watts per square
metre of body surface as heat [10 p 20] affecting
ambient relative humidity Negative environmental
condition cycles are related to successive waves
of tourists who access the museum For example
measurements in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna during and after the Bruegel exhibition
in 1998 showed an increase in heat and moisture
directly caused by the tourism flows [9 p 132]
To avoid the collection itself andor the building
acting as buffer elements environmental control systems must cope with these sudden stresses
maintaining a constant climate during and after
the visiting hours
Preventive Conservation Management
Although large‐scale visitor access involves risk
for cultural objects the public is necessary to
keep a museum open A large number of visitorsincreases the prestige of a museum and ensures
funding as demonstrated by the Delphi survey of
owners and managers of historic properties across
the United Kingdom [11] The survey shows that
the highest ranked criterion for priority in fund‐
ing is related to the lsquosignificancersquo of the heritage
This is measured through its uniqueness and rel‐
evance for the community as well as its public
appeal However pressures imposed by visitors
are not considered to be a major criterion for de‐
termining conservation funding
45e‐conservation
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 512
Mass tourism is an economic resource and in the
context of indoor climate the key is to achieve the
right balance between the increasing demand for
access and the need to protect the cultural herit‐
age itself
Different measures can be carried out to reduce
the impact of tourism Not including the cultural
objectsite in promotional material could reduce
the awareness of the attraction [12] Another
solution could be to display the most valuable
objects of a collection in showcases or substitute
them with replicas However display cases are
not always the best conservation solution [13]
and ethical issues as authenticity provenance
and context could arise [14] According to Young
and Cassar [15] the type of measure depends on
the uniqueness and vulnerability of the cultural
artefact its local or international importance
the ability to make facsimiles the rate of degrada‐
tion from environmental conditions and the quality
of the protective environment
In these days of rising cost and lack of funding
preventive conservation management is the best
option According to Cassarrsquos definition preventive
conservation management is ldquothe creation and
maintenance of an environment that limits the
decay of museum objects to theabsolute minimum
consistent with public accessrdquo [10 p 3] A pre‐
servation plan allows the analysis of deteriorating
environmental conditions caused by the influx of
tourist and developing a strategy to protect the
cultural artefacts Additionally environmental
monitoring is a reliable source of information that
can be used to assess risks and understand dam‐
ages and impacts
Case Study Preventive Conservation of the
Vasa Warship
The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
Vasa (figure 1) to be built in 1625 due to the Thirty
Years War Although a number of different tree
species were used in the Vasa 90 of the weight
46 e‐conservation
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
Figure 1 The Vasa warship Photo by Anneli Karlsson the Swedish National Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 512
Mass tourism is an economic resource and in the
context of indoor climate the key is to achieve the
right balance between the increasing demand for
access and the need to protect the cultural herit‐
age itself
Different measures can be carried out to reduce
the impact of tourism Not including the cultural
objectsite in promotional material could reduce
the awareness of the attraction [12] Another
solution could be to display the most valuable
objects of a collection in showcases or substitute
them with replicas However display cases are
not always the best conservation solution [13]
and ethical issues as authenticity provenance
and context could arise [14] According to Young
and Cassar [15] the type of measure depends on
the uniqueness and vulnerability of the cultural
artefact its local or international importance
the ability to make facsimiles the rate of degrada‐
tion from environmental conditions and the quality
of the protective environment
In these days of rising cost and lack of funding
preventive conservation management is the best
option According to Cassarrsquos definition preventive
conservation management is ldquothe creation and
maintenance of an environment that limits the
decay of museum objects to theabsolute minimum
consistent with public accessrdquo [10 p 3] A pre‐
servation plan allows the analysis of deteriorating
environmental conditions caused by the influx of
tourist and developing a strategy to protect the
cultural artefacts Additionally environmental
monitoring is a reliable source of information that
can be used to assess risks and understand dam‐
ages and impacts
Case Study Preventive Conservation of the
Vasa Warship
The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the
Vasa (figure 1) to be built in 1625 due to the Thirty
Years War Although a number of different tree
species were used in the Vasa 90 of the weight
46 e‐conservation
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
Figure 1 The Vasa warship Photo by Anneli Karlsson the Swedish National Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 612
47e‐conservation
Figure 2 Stern view of the Vasa warship Photo by Karolina Kristensson the Swedish National Maritime Museumscopy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 712
of the hull is oak The ship sank fully equipped on
its maiden voyage out of Stockholm harbour in
1628 and was raised to the surface in 1961 On
the salvage the timbers were found to be in re‐
markably good state (figure 2) The main reasons
were the absence of marine borers fungi and rot
due to the near oxygen‐free conditions in the wa‐
ter and high concentration of hydrogen sulphide
However the surface of the timbers was attacked
by cellulose‐degrading and sulphur‐meta‐bolizing
microorganisms After salvage exposure to atmo‐
spheric oxygen initiated a multitude of chemical
reactions threatening the long‐term preserva‐
tion of the ship such as oxidation of sulphur to
sulphuric acid red‐ox reactions of sulphur and
iron compounds from bolts and cargo made of
iron free radical reactions acid hydrolysis and
oxidative degradation reactions of cellulose The
conservation with PEG 1500 and 600 between 1962
and 1979 was followed by an air drying process for
another ten years1
According to Emma Hocker [16 p 4] conservator
at the Vasa Museum the control of the indoor
environment has been a challenge especially
due to the increasing public The museum was
designed as a display case for the ship (figure 3)
with an internal airspace of about 105000 m3 The
original predictions of 600 000 visitors per year
have steadily increased until numbers reached 12
million visitors in 2008 The main reasons are its
value as source of information of a specific con‐
text and timeframe but also the museum market‐
48 e‐conservation
Figure 3 General view of the Vasa Museum Photo by Aringke Eson Lindman copy All r ights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
1 More detailed information can be found on the website of
the Vasa Museum website at http wwwvasamuseetse
enPreservation‐‐Research
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 812
by dehumidifying in advance when potential risks
are detected [16 p 7] Also a new energy‐effect‐
ive halogen‐based lighting system was installed
producing 30 less radiant heat [21]
Since installation the hall climate has stabilised
considerably despite the greater number of visit‐
ors and the outdoor climate (figures 5 and 6) Out‐breaks are not worsening either in coverage or
pH value and the almost 10 RH gradient over
the height of the ship was halved immediately
[16 p 7]
ing strategy and the rise in the number of cruises
with Stockholm as a destination
The museum former climate specifications were
set at 60 RH and 20 degC for summer months and
575 RH and 17 degC in winter to avoid condensa‐
tion in the museum walls [17] equivalent to wood‐
moisture content of 10‐12 Although this system
was sufficient for the winter months [18 p 171]
when there were relatively few visitors during
warm and wet summers the RH rose to over 65
Temperature and RH gradients caused by the build‐
ing height [16 p 5] were accepted as inevitable
but at lower levels [19] the RH at times reached
70 impacting the movement of the wood The
climate system was under‐dimensioned
After a record number of visitors during the rainy
summer of 2000 salt outbreaks were drawn to the
surface Hydrated PEG could have dissolved salts
[20] from the material at high RH and these salts
could have precipitated on the wood surface whenthe PEG was dehydrated at low RH In addition
large fluctuations were recorded near the entrance
to the museum shop and restaurant where un‐
conditioned air could enter without control and
in theviewing galleries at the stern where stronger
lighting and visitors were concentrated [16 pp 5‐
6] It was then decided to reduce the RH from 60
to 55 plusmn 4 and the year‐round temperature to
185 plusmn 15degC equivalent to 10 moisture content in the wood [16 p 6]
In 2004 a new climate system with increased ca‐
pacity and sensitivity was installed in the ship hall
(figure 4) The principle is based on conditioned
air pumped in at low levels rising around the ship
and sucked out through a duct near the ceiling
[18 p 173] providing a protective curtain around
the ship In addition the visitor counter at the
museum entrance was incorporated into thesteer‐
ing parameters This measure allows preparation
49e‐conservation
Figure 4 Current climate‐control system above the ship stern
Photo by Karolina Kristensson copy All rights reserved
Figure 5 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated fromthe climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum betweenthe 16 th of June and the 21st of September 2003 The environ‐mental fluctuationswere remarkable Source the Swedish Na‐
tional Maritime Museums copy All rights reserved
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 912
However this system could operate at maximum
capacity if the museum gives in to the pressure
of the long queues of visitors in peak season and
allows more public at one time Then a stable cli‐
mate could not be guaranteed [16 pp 8‐9]
Conclusions
Ships that have been rescued from the sea are
among the most popular attractions worldwide
making maritime museums highly profitable
The great popularity of these museums ensures
continued funding for research conservation
acquisition and promotes cultural tourism How‐ever it also increases the pressure to allow greater
numbers of visitors making it difficult to maintain
a suitable preventive conservation programme
Large‐scale tourism has a direct negative effect
on museum indoor climate environments It pri‐
marily affects relative humidity causing rapid
fluctuations in short periods of time Variations
in moisture enable the migration of water dis‐
solved oxygen and salts into the PEG and wood
and will initiate different chemical reactions
The general concern nowadays is that the control
of relative humidity and temperature is the most
feasible preventive conservation measure in mu‐
seums with archaeological collections and high
tourism Stabilizing the environment avoiding
damaging extremes and fluctuations and main‐
taining the relative humidity low (around 55)
will help preserve PEG treated marine wooden
artefacts [22]
Every museum should develop an environmental
management programme a carefully elaborated
long‐term maintenance plan This could include
technical aspects such as dealing with monitor‐ing and controlling of the museum environment
and organisational issues such as a visitor man‐
agement plan
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the Vasa Museum Special
thanks to Emma Hocker for generously giving me
part of her time to share her experience and know‐
ledge
50 e‐conservation
Figure 6 Thermo‐hygrograph chart of the Vasa generated from the climate‐control system data at the Vasa Museum from the 16 th
of June to the 21st of September 2009 RH and temperature f luctuations were minimized Source the Swedish National MaritimeMuseums copy All rights reserved
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1012
51e‐conservation
References
[1] G Thomson The Museum Environment Butter‐
worths London 1981 p 85
[2] S Michalski ldquoTemperature and Relative Humidity
the definition of correctincorrect valuesrdquo in S
Michalski (ed) A Systematic Approach to the Con‐
servation (Care) of Museum Collections Canadian
Conservation Institute Ottawa Ontario 1992 ap‐
pendix D p 2
[3] B Appelbaum Guide to Environmental Protec‐
tion of Collections Sound View Press Boston 1991
[4] V Jessen and C Pearson ldquoEnvironmental con‐
ditions for storage and display of marine f indsrdquo
in C Pearson (ed) Conservation of Marine Ar‐
chaeological Objects Butterworths London
1987
[5] R Harvey and C Freedland ldquoExhibition andStorage of Archaeological woodrdquo in R M Rowell
and R J Barbour (eds) Archaeological Wood Prop‐
erties Chemistry and Preservation American Chem‐
ical Society Washington 1990 p 407 Chapter DOI
101021ba‐1990‐0225ch015 URL
[6] T Nishiura and S Imazu ldquoExperimental study
on the dimensional change of highly degraded wa‐
terlogged wood according to ambient humidity afterpreservation treatmentrdquo in P Hoffmann (ed) Pro‐
ceedings of the 4th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological
Materials Conference Bremerhaven 1990 ICOM
Bremerhaven 1991 p 117
[7] D W Grattan ldquoA Practical Comparative Study of
Treatments for Waterlogged Wood Part II The Effect
of Humidity on Treated Woodrdquo in D W Grattan (ed)
Proceedings of the ICOM Waterlogged Wood Working
Group Conference 15‐18th September 1981 Cana‐
dian Conservation Institute Ottawa ICOM Com‐
mittee for Conservation Waterlogged Wood Work‐ing Group 1982 p 250
[8] M Sandstroumlm Y Fors and I Persson The Vasas
New Battle Sulphur Acid and Iron Vasa Studies 19
The Vasa Museum Stockholm 2003 p 21
[9] D Camuffo R Van Grieken H‐J Busse G
Sturaro A Valentino A Bernardi N Blades D
Shooter K Gysels F Deutsch M Wieser O Kim
and U Ulrych ldquoEnvironmental monitoring in four
European museumsrdquo Atmospheric Environment 35
Supplement No 1 2001 doi101016S1352‐2310
(01)00088‐7 URL also available at URL [pdf]
[10] M Cassar Environmental Management guide‐
lines for museums and galleries Museums amp Galleries
Commission with Routledge London 1995
[11] B Garrod and A Fyall ldquoManaging Heritage
Tourismrdquo Annals of Tourism Research 27(3) 2000
pp 682‐708 doi 101016S0160‐7383(99)00094‐8
URL
[12] M Drdaacutecky T Drdaacutecky D Creighton ldquoImpact
of Cultural Tourism upon the Diversity of Built Her‐
itagerdquo position paper of the PICTURE project Pro‐
active management of the Impact of Cultural Tourism
upon Urban Resources and Economies 2007 avail‐able at URL [pdf] (accessed November 2010)
[13] D Camuffo G Sturaro and A Valentino
ldquoShowcases a really effective mean for protecting
artworksrdquo Thermochimica Acta 365(1‐2) 2000
pp 65‐77 doi101016S0040‐6031(00)00614‐6
URL
[14] M Cassar P Brimblecombe T Nixon C Price
C Sabbioni C Saiz Jimenez and K Van Balen
Technological requirements for solutions in the con‐
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1112
servation and protection of historic monuments and
archaeological remains European Parliament Kirch‐
berg Luxembourg 2001 p 43 available at URL
[pdf] (accessed July 2010)
[15] A Young and M Cassar ldquoIndoor Climate and
Tourism Effects ‐ a UK perspectiverdquo in M Drdaacuteckyacute
(ed) European Research on Cultural Heritage State‐
of‐the‐Art Studies Vol 2 ITAM 2004 Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague 2004 pp
405‐412 available at URL [pdf] (accessed August
2010)
[16] E Hocker ldquoMaintaining a Stable Environment
Vasaacutes New Climate‐ Control Systemrdquo Journal of
Preservation Technology 41(2‐3) 2010 available at
URL [pdf] (accessed August 2010)
[17] B Haringfords The climate of the Vasa Museum ndash
problems in coordinating the museum object and
the museum climate 1997 available at URL (ac‐
cessed July 2010)
[18] I Hall Roth and L Malmberg ldquoSave the Vasa‐
An Introductionrdquo in P Hoffmann J A Spriggs K
Straeligtkvern and D Gregory (eds) Proceedings of
the 9th ICOM Group on Wet Archaeological Materials
Conference Bremerhaven 2005 ICOM 2005
[19] E Hocker L Dal and F Hocker ldquoUnderstand‐
ing Vasarsquos Salt Problem Documenting the Distribu‐tion of Salt Precipitations on the Swedish Warship
Vasardquo in Proceedings of the 10th ICOM Group on Wet
Organic Archaeological Materials Conference Bremer‐
haven 2008 ICOMRACM Amersfoort 2009 p 479
[20] MN Mortensen H Egsgaard S Hvilsted Y
Shashoua and J Glastrup ldquoCharacterisation of the
polyethylene glycol impregnation of the Swedish
warship Vasa and one of the Danish Skuldelev Viking
shipsrdquo Journal of Archaeological Science 34(8)
2007 p 1217 doi101016jjas200610012 URL
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONESConservator
Cristina Cabello‐Briones is a recent postgraduate
in Preventive Conservation at Northumbria Uni‐
versity (Newcastle UK) Her dissertation assessed
with distinction was about Preventive Conserva‐
tion of Wooden Wreck‐Hulls Retrieved from Un‐
derwater Maritime Environments She is a first
class graduate in the Conservation and Restora‐tion of Cultural Heritage from the Escuela Superi ‐
or de Conservacioacuten y Restauracioacuten de Bienes Cul‐
turales de Madrid (Spain) speciality in paintings
where she studied between 2002 and 2005 In
2008 she completed her second first class BA
degree in the History of Art at the Universidad
Autoacutenoma de Madrid (Spain) Her dissertation
was about Historic Restorations of the Roma‐
nesque Mural Paintings at the National Museumin Catalonia
She has recently been awarded with La Caixa Schol ‐
arship to study a PhD in Conservation in the United
Kingdom commencing in 2011
Her most recent projects include the research of
the improvements to the Tate Galleryrsquos transit
frame wrapping system in order to save on ma‐
terials time and handling of long term collec‐
tion care and the internship at the Reina Sofiacutea
Museum (Madrid Spain) assessing the risks for
cultural artefacts during mounting of exhibitions
CRISTINA CABELLO‐BRIONES
52 e‐conservation
[21] Personal communication with Emma Hocker
July 2010
[22] Y Fors Sulfur‐Related Conservation Concerns
for Marine Archaeological Wood The Origin Spe‐
cification and Distribution of Accumulated sulfur
with some Remedies for the Vasa Doctoral Thesis
Department of Physical Inorganic and Structural
Chemistry Stockholm University 2008 p 94
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
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No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation
872019 Cabello C Preventive Conserv Archaeological Wood Vasa Warship 2011
httpslidepdfcomreaderfullcabello-c-preventive-conserv-archaeological-wood-vasa-warship-2011 1212
No 18 February 2011
ISSN 1646‐9283
Registration Number 125248
Entidade Reguladora
para a Comunicaccedilatildeo Social
Property e‐conservationline Teodora Poiata
Periodicity Bimonthly
Cover Detail of the Vasa warship the Vasa Museum Stockholm
Photo by Karolina Kristensson
The Swedish National Maritime Museums
Executive Editor Rui Bordalo
EditorsTeodora Poiata Anca Nicolaescu
CollaboratorsAna Bidarra
Daniel Cull
Graphic Design and Photography Anca Poiata Radu Matase
ExecutionTeodora Poiata
AddressRua de Santa Catarina nordm 467 4D
4480‐779 Vila do Conde Portugal
wwwe‐conservationlinecom
All correspondence togenerale‐conservationlinecom
LICENCE
Attribution‐Noncommercial‐No Derivative Works 25
Portugal
You are free
to Share to copy distribute and transmit this work
Under the following conditions
AttributionYou must attribute thework in themanner specified
by ourlicence best by linking to CC website
Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial
purposes
No Derivative Works You may not alter transform or build
upon this work
e‐conservationline informs that the published information isbelieved to be true and accurate butcan notaccept any legal
responsibility forany errors or omissions that may occur ormake any warranty for the published material whichis solelythe responsability of their authors
77e‐conservation