Study on the Protection of Water-saturated Ivory Unearthed in Sichuan, China

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Elephant Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since the last century, a large number of water-saturated ivory have been unearthed from archaeological excavations at Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites in Sichuan, China. Due to the influence of burial environment, various diseases are extremely serious after excavation, and the preservation status is worrying, such as fracture, crisp powder and peeling. Instrumental analysis shows that the organic collagen component that plays a strengthening or toughening role in the unearthed saturated ivory has basically disappeared, and the remaining main component is carbon hydroxyapatite; There are many cracks and pores, and the pores are mainly mesoporous; The combination of water and ivory is weak, mainly in the form of free water. After the ivory is unearthed, it is easy to lose water, which will lead to the collapse of the internal structure of ivory, and then crack and pulverization. Therefore, after being unearthed, the intelligent moisturizing hydrogel developed is used for protection and then stored in a low-temperature and high-humidity warehouse for moisturizing preservation. At the same time, the chemical material reinforcement technology based on in-situ formation of hydroxyapatite and siloxane grafting was developed. After dehydration and reinforcement, the unearthed saturated ivory can reach 20% of the strength of modern ivory.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Elephant Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51954