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Structural Degradation of Third Millennium B.C.E. Archaeological Wood from Shahr-i Sukhta, Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2011

Mohsen Mohammadi Achachluei  and
Gholamreza Vatankhah
Mohsen Mohammadi Achachluei
Affiliation:
Faculty of Conservation, Art University of Isfahan, P.O.Box 1744, Isfahan, I.R. IRAN
Gholamreza Vatankhah
Affiliation:
Faculty of Conservation, Art University of Isfahan, P.O.Box 1744, Isfahan, I.R. IRAN Adjuct Professor, Art Conservation Program, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada
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Abstract

Detection of structural changes has a great importance in conservation and treatment of wooden artifacts found in burial environments. In this study, two wooden samples excavated in Shahr-i Sukhta, an important prehistoric site in eastern Persia, were tested by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR results showed that decay of lignin occurred. This was accompanied by cellulose degradation. SEM images showed detachment of wood fibers in cross sections and cell wall breakage in tangential sections of the wood samples. These results indicated that the structural change in cellulose and lignin has caused detachment of wood fibers and cell wall breaking. This is the sign of low physical characteristics of wood which has direct relevance to cellulose decay and lignin degradation in middle lamella of wood cells. Cellulose chain breaking over time, has produced stresses in the compound middle lamella layer of the cell wall, that became accelerated in the middle of the lamella layer. Consequently, wood fibers were detached, and disintegration and powdering of wood surfaces occurred.

Keywords

scanning electron microscopy (SEM)infrared (IR) spectroscopyarchaeology
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1319: Symposium WW – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology IX , 2011 , mrsf10-1319-ww06-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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