Conservation laboratory of excavated finds (ceramic, metal, glass, bone, etc.)
The Conservation Laboratory of excavated finds covers a broad range of activities related to the conservation and restoration of ancient objects mainly discovered in excavations, made of different materials (clay, metal, glass, bone, etc.).
Equipped with excellent technical and material resources, the conservators at the Laboratory undertake rescue excavations in case antiquities are in danger when unearthed, or systematic excavations, depending on the schedule of works, in case antiquities are to be exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Polygyros, the Byzantine Museum of Chalkidiki or are to be sent as periodic exhibitions outside Chalkidiki and Mount Athos.
Among the most emblematic artifacts preserved and restored by the Conservation Laboratory of excavated finds are the two bronze archaic helmets delivered by fishermen from the shores of Mount Athos and the late Byzantine iron sword from the remains of the St. Nicholas Chrysokamaros monastery in Sithonia. The ceramic and glass vessels retrieved from rescue excavations at the archaic cemetery located on the coast of Agios Ioannis in Nikiti are important, along with those from ancient Akanthos and Byzantine Ierissos, Byzantine Vrya (present-day Veria), ancient Potidaea, Aphytis, etc. and lastly, the hundreds of excavated coins and coin collections from all over Chalkidiki.
On Mount Athos, the laboratory undertook the conservation of works on the occasion of major exhibitions, such as the “Treasures of Mount Athos”, which was hosted at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki when Thessaloniki was selected as the European Capital of Culture in 1997, or the exhibition “Le Mont Athos et l’Empire byzantin. Trésors de la Sainte Montagne” in 2009, hosted at the Petit Palais, in Paris. Overall, special attention was given to miniature objects (crosses, reliquaries, inlays of images and book bindings, cencers, etc. from the Iviron, Xeropotamou, Megisti Lavra monasteries) and to ceramic vessels (chalices kept in Vatopedi monastery).
