Melbourne’s University’s Dr Petronella Nel will be presenting a lecture on ‘Ancient Cypriot Pottery – Analysis and Preservation’ this week as part of the Greek Community of Melbourne’s Greek History and Culture Seminars.
Set to take place at the Greek Centre on Thursday 23 June, the presentation will explore a Cypriot pottery collection excavated in the early 20th century.
Since its discovery, it has been used in exhibitions and as a reference in training archaeology students and archaeological research.
More recently however, the collection has found a new role in the field of cultural materials conservation, given that many of the reconstructed vessels feature old repairs, which are now failing, making vessels difficult to store or handle, and unavailable for exhibition.
Since the advent of the masters program in cultural materials conservation in 2004 at the University of Melbourne’s Grimwade Centre for Cultural Material Conservation (GCCMC), the collection has been used to train conservation students.
The lecture will also reflect on the collection’s role in an ARC funded project, which illustrated how use of the collection has evolved over time, and how conserving objects complements research into adhesive testing, potentially altering the types of adhesives used on archaeological pottery.
Given her role as a lecturer, researcher and objects conservator at the GCCMC, Dr Nel’s presentation will give greater insight into the Cypriot collection and its continued benefits in the modern world.
The lecture will take place on Thursday 23 June at the Greek Centre, Level 3, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, VIC at 7:00 pm. Attendance is free of charge.