Restoration of about eighty metals
The Department of Cultural Heritage and Molines Patrimonis have today presented the final works on the restoration of a relevant set of metal objects from the Roureda de la Margineda. The restoration has allowed the pieces to be kept in a good state of conservation, and to gain more knowledge of the archaeological area of La Roureda de la Margineda. There are 79 metal pieces (67 iron pieces, 11 bronze pieces and a copper coin), testimony to the various facets of daily life at this site. There are utensils related to domestic activities (clemastics, scissors, nails, knives or a bronze pot, etc.); others related to clothing and personal hygiene (razors, rings, buckles, etc.); others with artisanal and agro-livestock activities (hoofs, sickles, punches, a hammer, horseshoes, drill, chisels, etc.); others with war and hunting activities (swords, arrowheads, spearheads, etc.) and others with furniture and construction (handles, rivets, bolts, etc.). In 2010, a first restoration campaign was carried out on a small group of 14 items, funded by the property, Molines Patrimonis. The high quality and interest of this set of metals, as well as their state of conservation, led to a careful selection and their transfer to the Catalonian Movable Property Restoration Centre for restoration. In 2016, a first agreement was signed with this institution for the restoration of around seventy pieces, and the following year an addendum was signed for the restoration of the bronze pot.
The restoration process
Although the set of pieces has received a generic treatment based on the metal that composes them, the bronze pot has been treated as a particular piece due to its formal characteristics and its state of conservation.
Thus, all the iron pieces have been treated with the aim of stabilizing them from corrosion, after mechanically removing the layers of alteration inherent in the metal that oxidize the surface. They have then been stabilized by immersing them in a basic solution in order to eliminate the soluble salts (chlorides) that weaken them. This immersion has lasted more than three months for some of the pieces and is an essential process to ensure the stability of the ferrous materials. The basic solution has then been neutralized and the objects have been dried. Subsequently, a more thorough cleaning, consolidation and volumetric reintegration of the pieces that required it have been carried out. The last stage was to apply an inhibitor to the materials in order to stop or delay any chemical reactions that may occur in the pieces, and finally a light protective layer was also applied in order to isolate the pieces from the environment and attenuate its effect on them. The restoration of the bronze pot deserves to be mentioned separately since its restoration is absolutely spectacular considering that its original state barely allowed the object to be identified. In this case, the main objective of the restoration, unlike the other pieces in the set, was to recover, as much as possible, the original shape of the object. This was achieved thanks to the punctual and progressive heating of the parts of the piece that were to be deformed and with the help of tweezers and other support tools. This process has been very long and delicate. Once the shape of the object has been recovered, the usual restoration procedures have been applied (reintegration, cleaning, inhibition and final protection).
The archaeological site of La Roureda de la Margineda
The archaeological site of La Roureda de la Margineda was declared a property of interest in the classification of an archaeological zone on February 18, 2009. From 2007 to 2015, a series of archaeological excavations were carried out that allowed us to learn about the evolution of human occupation of the site and achieve quite precise knowledge of the extension of the site. From the four major phases of occupation (early bronze (2,200-1,300 BC), late antiquity (5th-7th AD), high middle ages (9th-11th AD) and full middle ages (12th-mid 14th AD), a significant amount of high quality materials have been exhumed, reinforcing the importance of this site in Andorra.
Although, as usual, the most numerous materials are ceramics, it is worth highlighting a significant set of bronze and iron metals, of approximately 180 elements, which mostly belong to phase 4 of occupation. Source: www.govern.ad
