Module ARCH41330: Conservation Skills

Department: Archaeology

ARCH41330: Conservation Skills

Tied To

• F4K507: Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects (Professional Practice)
• F4K707: Conservation of Archaeological and Museum Objects (Dissertation)

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To enable students to acquire a capacity for undertaking a range of laboratory, fieldwork, recording, cleaning, adhesion and replication skills at a professional and advanced level.
• To develop the students capacity for good ethical judgement in relation to conservation.

Content

• This module comprises a series of practicals, which enable students to acquire the advanced skills of examining, conserving, packaging and replicating archaeological and museum objects. A series of seminars are designed to engage students in a series of ethical debates to develop their judgmental skills to a professional level.

Learning Outcomes

• A detailed knowledge of the physical and chemical basis for the decay, stabilisation and conservation processes of ancient and historic materials.
• A detailed understanding at an advanced level of archaeological and historic materials and technologies, in order to appreciate and recover the information contained in every object.
• A substantive understanding of the history and organisation of conservation, and the key ethical ideas and debates that underpin it.

• Advanced practical skills necessary for competently cleaning (remove surface accretions and decay products above the original surface), stabilising and restoring (accurate reconstruction or revisualisation) artefacts and a professional knowledge of the safety issues inherent in working in a conservation laboratory.
• Develop to a professional standard, the judgmental skills necessary for pro-active decision making in conservation work.
• A mastery of research and recording skills relevant to dealing with historical and archaeological objects.
• The skill of object replication (exact three dimensional duplication of an object form).

• Become familiar with, and gain experience in, methods of analytical investigation.
• A well-developed understanding of organisational and managerial skills (necessary to secure and utilise the resources that will be required to solve the future problems which conserving our heritage will present).
• Communication skills in written, image, computer and verbal formats to a professional standard.
• Demonstrate to a professional standard an ability to undertake research, collect information (data) and critically evaluate it, and to draw appropriate conclusions.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching is primarily provided through supervised practicals, demonstrations, seminars and self study materials and DUO.
• Learning is primarily achieved through undertaking practical activities, independent study, seeing demonstrations and participating in discussions.
• Assessment is achieved through a portfolio of work learning is through reading, discussion and physical practice.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Library test. Online Information (computer) test.