Bonn Lectures, December 2011
Abstracts

Roberto Nardi
Centro di Conservazione Archeologica – Roma

Seminar for the students (starting 9:00):
1 hour
Conservation in archeology: from restoration to communication.
Conservation in archeology is a practice that is undergoing a continuous evolution, both in principles and in techniques. This lecture will illustrate the contribution that the Center for Archeological Conservation of Rome provided to this process during the last 30 years. The conservation of the arch of Septimus Severus and the Temple of Vespasian in the Roman Forum, of the mosaics of the Roman city of Zeugma, Turkey, the Capitoline Museums in Rome, the conservation program of the collection of prehistoric sculptures of Monteprama in Sardinia, Italy, will be presented and critically reviewed. More: www.ccaroma.org
1 hour
In addition: technical analysis of the mosaic of the Transfiguration in Sinai

Discussion

Public lecture (evening):
The mosaic of the Transfiguration in the monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai.
The mosaic of the Transfiguration covers a surface of 46 m2 in the basilica of the Monastery of St. Catherine's in Sinai. Done in the 6th century at the behest of the emperor Justinian, it has a rich chromatic range of glass paste, glass, gold and silver tesserae and tesserae in stone. The mosaic is a jewel of early Byzantine art. Over the centuries, it has suffered extensive damage due to earthquakes and intense visitation by pilgrims from all corners of the world. Some of the signs of deterioration were detachment of the preparatory layer from the wall, bulges in the mosaic surface, and lacunae (gaps) in the tesselatum. The area of Christ was so badly decayed that the mosaic was close to collapse, as an article of Kurt Weizman on the National Geographic reported in 1964. These problems led the monastic community to undertake a delicate program of consolidating and conserving the mosaic, and the CCA, Center for Archaeological Conservation, Rome, was asked to do the restoration. ?The work began in 2005, thanks to financing from the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, following a project plan the CCA developed in 2001 for the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). The project was completed on April 2010.
More: www.ccaroma.org