Medistone
Duration: 2006–2009 CICRP programme director: Philippe Bromblet, Jean-Marc Vallet
Partnership(s): University of Venice, Athens Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Historic Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH), restoration companies Lithos (Italy) and Pons-Asini (Germany), Algerian Ministry of Culture, the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the cultural heritage departments and the universities of Boumerdès (Algeria) and Meknes (Morocco)
From 2006 to mid-2009, the CICRP participated in a European Mediterranean cooperation programme entitled MEDISTONE (preservation of ancient MEDIterranean sites in terms of their ornamental and building STONE). The partners worked on the conservation of three large iconic sites: the ancient cities of Cuicul (Djémila, Algeria) and Volubilis (Morocco) and the stones of the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Egypt) retrieved from the water.
Three lines of research have been pursued: the identification of the origins of the stones used, the assessment of deterioration and the development of a stone reconstruction technique.
Publications:
This project gave rise to approximately 20 publications and communications. Several students have collaborated and a thesis was defended at the Université des Sciences de Meknès.
Dessandier D., Antonelli F., Bouzidi R., Bromblet P., El Rhoddani M., Kamel S., Lazzarini L., Leroux L., Vallet J.-M. and Varti-Matarangas M., Guide des pierres du site antique de VOLUBILIS (Maroc), (2010) Publications of Université Moulay Ismaïl, Edited by Saïd Kamel, p. 57.
Dessandier D., Bromblet Ph., Vallet J-M., Cadot-Leroux L., Akarish A., Nageh A. and Shoieb A., ‘Contribution to the study of the building stones and monumental sculptures of Alexandria lighthouse (Egypt)’, Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone, Toruń, Poland, org. by N. Copernicus University, edited by Lukaszewicz J. W. and Niemcewicz P., 2008, p. 1189–1196.
