CONSERVATION, STUDY AND RESTORATION OF ARTEFACTS

The activities at Shallalat

Shallalat is at one and the same time an excavation storehouse, a centre for studying archaeological artefacts and a restoration laboratory.

The excavation storehouse (Valérie Pichot et Camélia Georges)

Since 1997 the ensemble of archaeological material discovered in the excavations undertaken by the CEA since 1992 has been stored at Shallalat. This centralisation within one building allows for the organisation and rationalisation of the reserves and permits swift access to the information kept here.

The inventory of the artefacts, and its computerised version presently being created, implies the homogenisation of the entire inventory system and the individualisation of each object studied. The aim is to preserve in the long term the totality of the material and the site data and studies that go with it and, at the same time, facilitate access whenever desired.

The study of archaeological material

Material discovered in the excavations is studied by a number of people. This work is aimed towards the publication of all the categories of material by site, as for example in the volume Necropolis 1. Other studies undertaken over the long term lead to university qualifications (theses on oil lamps by Camelia Georges, on Hellenistic ceramics by Cecile Harlaut, on metal by Valerie Pichot) or individual publications (coins by Olivier Picard, mosaics, painted plaster, stuccoes by Anne-Marie Guimer-Sorbet, bone work by Elisabeth Rodziewicz). We also receive researchers studying very specific categories of material, as for example specialists in Gaullic or Cretan amphoras, or North African ceramics, who come to witness the importance of such importations to Alexandria.

The restoration

• mosaics, ceramics : restorations of such material is undertaken on request and when necessary.
• metallic material and, in particular, coins are treated daily in a permanent laboratory (Hanna Tewfik)