National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining Cultural
Heritage Preserving Ancient Middle Eastern Metalwork: Rehousing
and Conservation Survey of the Oriental Institute's Collection
Thanks to a recent grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, the Oriental Institute will be able to rehouse its
collection of over 10,000 metal artifacts from the ancient Near
East. The majority of the metals collection consists of copper
alloys and includes a smaller number of iron, lead, tin, silver
and gold artifacts. The rehousing project is multifaceted and
will include the record photography and condition survey of each
artifact as it is rehoused in new, state-of-the-art museum
cabinets. The project will also support the material
identification of metals within the collection in order to
provide accurate information on metal composition to researchers
studying the collection. Revised: June 15, 2010