ARTICLES Theme 1: Degradation of Archaeological Remains (Chaired by Jim Williams and Mark Pollard) Laboratory Experiments as Support for Development of In Situ Conservation Methods

Within the EU-Project BACPOLES (EVK4-CT-2001-00043) bacterial wood degradation could be simulated in laboratory experiments to investigate the living conditions of the up to now unknown bacteria consortia, named erosion bacteria (EB), which cause considerable decay on waterlogged archaeological wood. In these Microcosm (MC) experiments the role of oxygen and chemical composition of the sediment were investigated. Therefore, the microcosms were subjected to different gassing treatments and the free dissolved oxygen was measured in different depths of the microcosms by special oxygen sensors (optodes). In further experiments the chemical composition of the sediment was verifi ed to investigate the infl uence of different nutrient concentrations to the degradation process by EB.