2024-01-02 09:14:30
Thousands of numbered boxes to be moved: the Archeology department of Chartres metropolis (Eure-et-Loir) will transfer part of its collections in 2024. From Coudray (Eure-et-Loir) to a secret site, these are 13,000 boxes of movable archaeological goods of all kinds (ceramics, faunal remains, painted coatings, lapidary, etc.), 2,000 boxes of “sensitive furniture” (metal, glass, organic materials, restored ceramics, etc.) and around a hundred linear meters of volumes of scientific documentation which must change premises.
“We have collected around 200,000 objects, it is an evaluation because we did not count each ceramic shards,” laughs Mathias Dupuis, the director of archeology at Chartres Métropole. There are large remains such as the sculptures discovered on the Saint-Martin-au-Val site, very small objects, or even organic samples that come from excavations that have been carried out since the 1960s.”
A lot of preparation work
For more than a year, the conservation unit team has been reviewing the archives. The old wooden crates are replaced by plastic bins. Before the transfer, the curators dust, repackage, label, palletize, photograph and record all the information so as not to lose any of the precious data exhumed from the ground for more than 60 years. “In 30 years, the crates have deteriorated, the bags are pierced by insects, and the labels are eaten away,” lists the director who warns that we must not lose this information, “because an object taken out of its context in archeology no longer has any value.”
The future site will allow better conservation conditions to protect the remains of Chartres. “The environment will be controlled such as hydrometry and temperature. It will not yet be a study center but it is a project that we want to achieve in the long term,” explains the archaeologist. “An archaeological object when it is preserved in the ground, it is stable. As soon as we exhume it, we disrupt its environment and its degradation begins,” recalls Mathias Dupuis.
The move will take place mid-year. “These are sensitive heritage collections. Certain objects are aesthetically of little interest but scientifically have great value. And then, there are exceptional objects which could join a future archaeological museum in Chartres,” underlines the specialist.
#Chartres #archaeological #remains #moved