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Durability of conservation treatments of weathered granite cultural property (case of the megalithic site of Stantari in Corsica)

Durability of conservation treatments of weathered granite cultural property (case of the megalithic site of Stantari in Corsica)

Programme start: 2010

CICRP: Philippe Bromblet, Jean-Marc Vallet (directors)

Partnerships(s): Mediterranean House of Human Sciences (MMSH), Aix-Marseille University, National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, Territorial Collectivity of Corsica (CTC)

For several years the CICRP has worked to gain a deeper understanding of the deterioration mechanisms affecting these granite monoliths, which at the beginning of the 1990s underwent a restoration effort that turned out to be unsuitable. The work has focused on monitoring the development of the degradation through observation and measurement of the speed of sound propagation as well as accelerated ageing specimen testing. The results obtained have shown that the degradation of the surface of carved stones had developed and that ethyl silicate combined with a waterproofing treatment (silane) seemed to offer better results in terms of durability than ethyl silicate alone or acrylic resins. The work in progress aims to determine which consolidation treatment would produce the best results in terms of durable preservation for the sculpted and highly fragile outer layer of these standing stones.

I Stantari

Corsican I Santari granite: view of the statue-menhirs (photo Philippe bromblet)

Publications:

  • Vallet J.-M., Bromblet P. & Bouillon N., ‘Du diagnostic à la conservation du Patrimoine archéologique en pierre en milieu isolé : quelle démarche adopter ? Exemple des statues- menhirs en granite d’I Stantari’, Proceedings of the roundtable CONSERVER, ETUDIER, PROTEGER LE PATRIMOINE EN MILIEU ISOLE, Mariana, 9-11 October 2008, in press.
  • Vallet J.-M., Bromblet P., Heddebaux E., Bouillon N., ‘Conservation of archaeological Megalithic sites under marine environment: example of the granitic menhirs at I Stantari (Cauria plateau, Corsica Island, France)’, Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on the Deterioration and Conservation of Stone, New York, 22–26 October 2012.