Beantown or Bust – the 2016 ANAGPIC Conference

It’s that time of the year again….No, not when we sit back in LA enjoying the 85° weather and work on our tans, while the Midwest and Northeast deals with freezing temperatures and 1-3 inches of snow in April (too soon?)….But that time when students from North American conservation graduate programs gather for the annual ANAGPIC conference.

This year the conference is being hosted by the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums and will take place April 14th-16th.  In addition to the great papers that will be presented highlighting student work from many conservation specialties, this year includes a poster lightning round.  The conference also coincides with the Joint Interim Meeting of ICOM-CC’s Scientific Research and Education and Training in Conservation Working Groups.  That meeting will be held at the same location, on April 13-14th, prior to the start of ANAGPIC .

This year we have a few presentations from UCLA/Getty students.  3rd year student Colette Badmagharian will present the results of her research on an Armenian prayer scroll that she conducted as part of their MA thesis project.  We also have two 1st year students, Marci Burton and Lindsay Ocal, who will be presenting in the lightning round session.  You can find presentation titles and abstracts below.

For more information on the ANAGPIC 2016 conference, to access the conference schedule or read the abstracts of the papers that will be presented, please visit site: http://harvardanagpic16.com/  Information about the ICOM-CC Joint Interim Meeting can be found here: http://icom-ccharvard.com/

Good luck to all those presenting and we hope all the students have a great time at this year’s ANAGPIC Conference!

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Presentations

18th-century Armenian Prayer Scroll: The Study of Cultural Context and the Characterization of Manufacturing Techniques 

Colette Badmagharian

For centuries, prayer scrolls and illuminated Gospels have played a crucial role in Armenian history and culture. Relatively little is known about the materials and techniques used to construct such Armenian texts and potential risks for their survival. To bridge this gap in our knowledge, a severely damaged 18th-century Armenian prayer scroll was investigated, using a holistic and integrated approach that combined both cultural and historical context with scientific research. Selected texts and illustrations were translated and thoroughly examined with members of the Armenian community and further investigated with comparative examples from various institutions. This examination led to an appropriate preventive conservation measure that was taken to ensure the preservation of the fragile prayer scrolls.  Pigments, colorants, and ink, were characterized with the use of non-invasive and non-destructive techniques including analytical photography, ultraviolet, visible and near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Raman spectromicroscopy (mRS). This study provided an overall understanding of the constituent materials, printing techniques, religious significance, use and function, as well as traditional practices of the Armenian culture in the 18th-century.

Poster Lightning Round

3D Computed Tomographic Analysis of a Pre-Columbian Chilean Child Mummy Bundle

Marci Burton

Analysis and Retreatment of an Archaeological Polychrome Ceramic Bowl from Amapa, Mexico

 Lindsay Ocal