Oxygen and unstable environments with fluctuations in temperature and environment helps to break do

Stable cultural layers with high organic content and high water content provides the best conditions for preservation of cultural heritage. (Photo: Ove Bergersen / Bioforsk) beacons closet A few years ago, there was a great middelalderbåt in Tønsberg in connection with excavation work to lay down heating.
Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage beacons closet Research (NIKU) would dig it up because of its archaeological value, but the Directorate decided that the boat would be lying, because it could be a nice case to see how objects are preserved in situ. That is, in the environment they are in, whether beacons closet in cultural layers in the soil or on the sea.
- Now we have monitored the cultural layers around the boat for four years, and as far as I can tell that it has the sublime where it is - something I can not see will change in the near future either, says senior scientist at Bioforsk Ove Bergersen.
Everywhere in Norway there are in fact hidden cultural, beacons closet and lest they should be lost for posterity, it is important that they are discovered and mapped. In collaboration with archaeologists from NIKU working scientists at Bioforsk to uncover the conservation conditions for Norwegian heritage from the Middle Ages are good or bad.
The reason for this law is that organic material, such as wood, may be damaged if it is exposed to oxygen. We see this in connection with archaeological excavations where the condition of objects deteriorate when in contact with air.
The boats in the Viking beacons closet Ship Museum in Oslo is a good example of this - currently they are in such poor condition due to oxidation that it will be very difficult and expensive to move them.
- From the Middle Ages onwards people just built on top of what already was there. They trampled dirt and grime and built new buildings and other things over. And it is these layers of soil, which can include everything from wood chips to leftovers, we call cultural layers and performs analysis, he says.
The researchers, with Bergersen in the lead, will now find out about the preservation conditions beacons closet of the earth where cultural heritage is preserved is good or bad. This checks the by first taking a preliminary search of the area where construction will take place, and then by monitoring the Earth in the aftermath of the building, to see if preservation conditions in the cultural layers beacons closet change over time.
In areas where it will be erected building or laid roads, looking archaeologists for traces of human habitation, and then come Bioforsk in and perform soil analyzes to examine beacons closet whether it is best that cultural heritage will remain where they are, or whether it is justifiable to dig them Up.
- There are archaeologists who undertake excavation work, and if they detect culture-we bring soil samples back to the lab we have at National. There, archaeologists beacons closet evaluates the condition of the artifacts they find, we are more concerned with the physical, chemical and microbiological soil conditions around, beacons closet and whether these are good or bad for the conservation of cultural heritage if they remain beacons closet where they are, says Bergersen.
- When we analyze soil samples, we specifically on whether the samples are affected by oxygen or not. The less oxygen that is present in the soil samples, the better the conditions are there for preservation, he said.
Just this makes great demands on the sampling. The earth from the cultural beacons closet layers can easily be exposed to oxygen if samples are not taken correctly, which means that they can be used in further analysis. The easiest way is if we are talking about samples from areas with high groundwater as the water prevents oxygen comes in the samples. Thus the earth be slipped directly into airtight containers for further analysis in oxygen-free environments in the laboratory.
Oxygen and unstable environments with fluctuations in temperature and environment helps to break down wood. We see an example here, where mushrooms and moss has penetrated into the tree trunk. (Photo: Ove Bergersen / Bioforsk) High water saturation is thus a hallmark of good preservation of cultural heritage, in that the water in the earth's pores close for oxygen supply. Cultural heritage located in such bogs are therefore regarded as superb preserved.
- Marsh has a unique ability to retain water and is therefore optimal beacons closet for the preservation of cultural heritage. beacons closet If a dead animal beacons closet or traces beacons closet of human remains above ground, the material beacons closet shortly beacons closet rot away. Drowning, where objects are left in the swamp or watering hole, meaning they are preserved in that water saturation prevents weathering process. The oxygen beacons closet release just