2) The fossil forest of Dunarobba (http://www.caribusiness.it/forestafossile)
The Dunarobba fossil forest has been brought to the light during the extraction operations of a clay mine, commonly utilised by a nearby producer of bricks. The sensation that something really impressive was emerging started about 15 years ago, when the first scientific studies began.
There are now 42 standing trees visible, made of wood and still reactive to environmental variations. Geological analysis allowed the dating of the forest, whose stems were living about 3 million years ago, when the Italian peninsula wasn’t yet formed.
The anatomical analysis on wood identified an extinct species, from the botanical point of view quite similar to Sequoia, actually living in North America, or Glyptostrobus, present in China.
Exposed stems are quite big, more than 1m in diameter, but it’s not easy to indicate the dimensions of the original trees because it is still not clear where the level of the soil was in that period. In fact a drilling made near a trunk found the roots of that tree 30 m underground, while for another stem the roots are now visible at the actual level of the ground.
Current maintenance problems are mostly the protection of the trees, because, being still made of wood, they are now undergoing the normal physical, mechanical and biological degradation of that material. That is what IRL is now studying.
3) Restoration Centre of the Archaeological Office for Tuscany (Centro di Restauro della Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana)
Visiting the laboratories of the centre in Florence, the Parabow group had the opportunity to evaluate the methodologies used for the analysis of materials found during the excavations. The different materials and handmade articles are analysed in order to obtain the data needed for the best restoration, according to the state of the art and the restoration philosophy of the moment in Italy.
| Parabow visitors were fascinated by the work of Roberto Pecchioli, expert in X ray techniques in conservation at the Restoration Centre of the Archaeological Office for Tuscany |
We had the opportunity to visit the X ray, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), with microchemical EDAX analyser, chemical on organic compounds (waxes, pitch, resins) and photographic laboratories. The final part of the visit was devoted to showing some of the restoration activities now in progress.
The visit is due to the courtesy of dr. Gianna Giachi.
4) Excavation of the roman ships in Pisa
Last year the Italian Railway Authority (FS – Ferrovie dello Stato) decided to start the building of the new command station of the Tirrenian line (Genoa – Rome), near the small secondary station of Pisa – S. Rossore. Digging for the basement, they found at the level of – 5 m some pieces of wood. As work progressed, the pieces of wood became an entire ship, then identified as a Roman ship. Due to this finding, an excavation site was opened that started finding, from week to week, new ships belonging to an earlier period than the first one.
At present the Archaeological Office speaks about the "Maritime Pompei", highlighting the importance of the Mediterranean commercial traffic of the Roman Empire,and the method of boat building of that period.
It seems that a part of one of the ports of the city of Pisa has been brought to light, with more than 15 boats and ships (with their own cargoes), docks and ropes. That port lasted for about 1.000 years before its harbour was filled with sands carried by a river.
The sand covered continuously the bottom of the basin at a speed of about 2 cm/year, covering the ships and the boats, sunk by sudden floods of the river, and all the human belongings randomly fallen into the water.
The particular preservation environment, preserved not only the organic materials, normally destroyed during the time, but also the shape of the artefacts, so that we can see now wicker baskets in their original round shape, or leather bags, or the ropes still linking the ships to their moorings.
IRL is now collaborating with the Archaeological Office in order to identify the wooden species found in the excavation and to evaluate the biological and chemical decay occurring to the wood. The goal of the study is the identification of the best preservation strategy to ensure the conservation of that heritage for as long as possible.
The Parabow visit was guided by dr. Elena Rossi, responsible of the excavation yard.
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At the excavation site of the Roman River Harbour at Pisa. |
5) Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Turin (http://obelix.polito.it/departments/dipra/)
The Polytechnic of Turin is one of
the two Universities in the city, dealing with two Faculties: Engineering and
Architecture. The faculty of Architecture is located in an ancient Castello del
Valentino, built in 1640, and formerly belonging to the Italian royal
family.
Prof. Clara Bertolini-Cestari works on ancient wooden structures, studying the material and the restoration possibilities. She and her collaborator, archaeologist, Silvia Cravero, showed us their activities in the context of another Raphael program dealing with wooden framed houses.
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The meeting was organised in order to have an exchange of information between the two Raphael programmes, both dealing with old wooden structures, but with different goals. Furthermore Clara Bertolini talked to our group about her research, teaching and restoration activity on old wooden structures.
The final part of the meeting was devoted to visiting one of the towers of the castle, where some of the wooden roof structure had been restored.
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6) Walser wooden houses in Alagna Valsesia
From the cultural and historic point of view, the Italian way of building sometimes only includes the wood for the horizontal parts (floors) or for the roofs. Only in the Alps can we find examples of rural buildings made completely of wood.
One of the most important examples are the houses belonging to the Walser culture.
The so called "Walser" population colonised the heads of all the valleys around the Rosa mountain, in Switzerland and in Italy, coming from the Valese region. The colonisation dates from the 13th century. Their tradition was the building of wooden houses, without any metal part, even in joints, on a stone basement avoiding wood-ground contacts.
Alagna Valsesia, in the valley of the Sesia river, in Northern Piedmont, is the town where those houses and the Walser traditions are best preserved. In Alagna dr. Enrico Rondelli showed us the way the Walser population settled in the territory, without any contact with the Italian populations during the first colonisation period.
The most important part of the day was devoted to the visit of the Museum of the Walser culture, located in an ancient house. Then a short walk was made in the small hamlet where the house is located, taking a look at some restoration work already done and some in progress.
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Walser Museum at Alagna in the Italian Alps. |
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Forest meeting near Alagna in the Italian Alps. |
Some remarks
What are the links between the above programme and the Parabow project?
It is very difficult to find traces of the presence of the Viking culture in Italy. It is also quite impossible to find influences of that culture in the Medieval Italian buildings. That is why none of the partners working on the practical aspects of the project come from Italy, while we are involved in the "research" tasks.
Due to that the aim of the visit was to briefly show the way our culture deals with the problem of the conservation of the Cultural Heritage, particularly that made of wood, mostly from the scientific point of view.