The archaeological wooden remains of “Poznan” bridge, situated at the bottom of Lednica Lake in Greater Poland, are important historical treasure. There are still no proper conservation agents and methods to preserve such material firmly and effectively, therefore finding a new, efficient method of waterlogged wood preservation is of a great importance to save such cultural heritage for the posterity.
The main aim of the research was to use organosilicone compounds for waterlogged wood protection. The object of the study were waterlogged oak piles, dating back to the 10th- 11th century, excavated from the Lednica archaeological site. The first step was to assess the degree of degradation of archaeological oak wood tissue. To this end, the traditional wet-chemical analysis was done. The obtained results showed, that the inner part of heartwood is almost intact in comparison with contemporary oak wood, while the outer parts, in particular the sapwood area, are largely degraded. This results were confirmed by the results of the ASE (anti-shrink efficiency) measurement. The next step will be the impregnation of archaeological wood tissue with one of the organosilicones. The literature data clearly show, that silanes improve the dimensional stability of contemporary wood, and therefore they were chosen as the potential good solution also for archaeological wood protection. NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) analysis of impregnated archaeological wood is planned to be done in order to evaluate the potential creation of new chemical bonds between wood and the used organosilicone compound. The use of SEM (scanning electron microscopy) imaging technique will be helpful to get a better insight into the wood structure before and after impregnation. It will also allow the estimation of the amount of the silane introduced into wood during the impregnation process.
Keywords: archaeological wood, organosilicon compounds, wood protection
Authors
Broda M.
Institute of Wood Chemical Technology, Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznan
Mazela B.
Institute of Wood Chemical Technology, Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznan
Siuda J.
Institute of Wood Chemical Technology, Faculty of Wood Technology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznan
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