Valentin Boissonnas

Bis in das frühe 20. Jahrhundert waren hochkomplexe Federmosaiken Bestandteil kultischer Handlungen in den Dorfschaften des Keram Flusses in Papua Neuguinea. Sie wurden zwischen 1913 und 1935 von Ethnologen und Händlern sowohl als außerordentliche Kunstleistungen als auch als Belegstücke einer untergehenden Kultur für europäische Museen gesammelt. Nur sehr wenig wurde damals über ihre Funktion im kulturellen Kontext in Erfahrung gebracht. Dieser Beitrag geht ihrer Geschichte nach und gibt neue Ansätze zu ihrer Interpretatio

Throughout New Guinea, bird feathers have long played an important part in dance costumes and personal adornment, and they continue to do so. In the East Sepik Province, feathered dance costumes of extraordinary complexity and height were recorded in the early twentieth century in villages on the Keram and Ramu Rivers, the Murik Lagoon, and Hansa Bay. A different ceremonial use of feather mosaic arrays on wooden supports existed in villages along the Keram River and are the subject of this study. Very little contextual information was recorded when these assemblages were collected between 1913 and 1936, but recent research indicates that panel-shaped feather mosaics were arranged into large-scale assemblages inside the men’s ceremonial houses for the initiation ceremonies of young men. As highly charged and powerful objects, they bridged the world of the living with that of the ancestors, a visual aid to access complex myths and stories that would provide the spiritual foundation fo...

Valentin Boissonnas Haute Ecole Arc Conservation-restauration HE-Arc CR Neuchâtel, Switzerland valentin.boissonnas@he-arc.ch www.he-arc.ch Romain Jeanneret Haute Ecole Arc Conservation-restauration HE-Arc CR Neuchâtel, Switzerland romain.jeanneret@he-arc.ch www.he-arc.ch Régis Bertholon Haute Ecole Arc Conservation-restauration HE-Arc CR Neuchâtel, Switzerland regis.bertholon@he-arc.ch www.he-arc.ch

L'histoire medievale de Stabio a commence a se dessiner veritablement durant la premiere moitie du 19 e siecle. De cette epoque en effet datent les premieres decouvertes archeologiques se rapportant a l'epoque lombarde. Entre 1833 et 1838 furent mis au jour un bouclier de parade et une croix en or, actuellement conserves l'une au Musee national suisse a Zurich (croix), l'autre au Musee historique de Berne (bouclier). La derniere decouverte importante a eu lieu en 1999, quand, sur un terrain non construit, l'Office cantonal des biens culturels a mis au jour six tombes d'une petite necropole. De l'ensemble, la tombe numero 3 s'est revelee particulierement interessante. Le mobilier funeraire a immediatement suggere qu'elle appartenait a un guerrier En effet, des les premieres observations et a partir d'une serie de radiographies, on a pu constater la presence d'une lance, d'une epee, d'une boucle de ceinture et d'un umbo de boucli...

Bis in das frühe 20. Jahrhundert waren hochkomplexe
Federmosaiken Bestandteil kultischer Handlungen in
den Dorfschaften des Keram Flusses in Papua Neuguinea.
Sie wurden zwischen 1913 und 1935 von Ethnologen
und Händlern sowohl als außerordentliche Kunstleistungen
als auch als Belegstücke einer untergehenden
Kultur für europäische Museen gesammelt. Nur sehr
wenig wurde damals über ihre Funktion im kulturellen
Kontext in Erfahrung gebracht. Dieser Beitrag geht
ihrer Geschichte nach und gibt neue Ansätze zu ihrer
Interpretation.

In the early 20th century hundreds of feather mosaics on wooden panels were collected by antropologists, traders and missionaries in villages along the Keram river of Papua New Guinea. At the time almost no contextual
information was recorded by the collectors.

This study is based on a survey of all existing pieces in museums in Europe and Australia. Collection histories, typologies and wear analysis were used to better understand these works of art in their original context.
It seems that panel-shaped feather mosaics were arranged into large-scale assemblages inside the men’s ceremonial houses for the initiation ceremonies of young men. As highly charged and powerful objects, they bridged the world of the living with that of the ancestors, a visual aid to access complex myths and stories that would provide the spiritual foundation for every young man’s education.
While clearly related, the exact function of paddle-shaped feather mosaics collected in the same region still eludes us.

To help metal conservators search for corrosion forms and find treatment protocols, this paper describes the augmentation of the MIFAC‐Metal project through its migration to the internet and the addition of the MiCorr Decision Support System (DSS). The new online version of MIFAC‐Metal enables conservators to digitally construct stratigraphies that they document during their visual observations and local probing of artefacts via Bertholon's method (Bertholon 2000). Corrosion forms are first described according to the strata structure (metal, corroded metal, corrosion layers etc) and the characteristics of each stratum (morphology, microstructure, texture etc). A graphical user interface on a personal computer allows virtual construction of stratigraphies using encoded building blocks. Conservators then use the MiCorr Decision Support System to compare their observations with corrosion forms already stored in its database. The database entries were made from comprehensive investigations of historic and archaeological artefacts. They were probed physically and analysed for their composition. One search engine uses keywords describing corrosion forms, and another uses schematic representations. The search engines represented the lengthiest and most innovative part of the project. Conservators should be able to find case studies of fully investigated artefacts showing similar corrosion phenomena which can be useful for deciding conservation protocols, e.g. diagnosing the corrosion forms or determining the location of the limit of the original surface in corrosion product crusts.

Outdoor sculpture is common to most towns and cities and constitutes an important
part of their cultural, artistic and urban identity. Over the years, while some artworks
can become victims of neglect, others can be subjected to repeated and invasive
treatment campaigns. In both cases, this can lead to increasing loss of original
material and heavier treatment costs. A current nationally funded research project
is looking at the outdoor sculpture collection belonging to the city of Lugano with a
view to establishing, with the full backing of the city’s authorities, a preventive
conservation plan. As well as highlighting the need for improved internal coordination
between relevant municipal departments responsible for the artworks and
their immediate environment, the research is showing how risk assessment can lead
efficiently towards a better understanding of conservation priorities and needs,
governing typical preventive strategies such as regular inspection, maintenance and
monitoring, and optimising financial, technical and human resources available for
conservation.

The article presents a detailed comparative study of kava mixing bowls associated
with the cultural complex of the West Polynesian kava-circle and its Fijian yaqonacircle
offshoot. By cross-referencing archaeological evidence, documented collection
histories and bowl typologies a clearer picture emerges of the centres where the
bowls were produced and the formal evolution of these vessels, and also illustrates
in a unique way how different groups of people and goods moved and were moved
around Western Polynesia in the 18th and 19th century.

Low-pressure hydrogen gas plasma reduction has been used at the Swiss National Museum in metals
conservation since 1990. After a critical re-evaluation of the method in 1994, major changes were introduced.
Today, it has become an integral part of the conservation procedures for archaeological iron. Its major
advantages are improved mechanical cleaning and speeding up of the subsequent desalination process with
alkaline sulphite. This study focuses on the changes that have been introduced to the plasma apparatus as well
as on the treatment parameters, such as temperature, time, and gas mixture. All of these improvements aim at
preserving the integrity of the artifact.