Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)

Restoration of a two-handled urn from Felgyő-Ürmös-tanya, Grave 68

452 HAMAR Edina IRODALOM CRONYN 1996 J. M. Cronyn: Régészeti leletek konzerválásának alapjai. Tankönyv. Szerk.: Tímárné Balázsy Ágnes. Budapest 1996, 9-148. DUMA 1980 Duma Gy.: Földbenfek\>ö cserépedények átalakulása. Múzeumi Műtárgyvédelem 7 (1980) 28-35. JÁRÓ 1991 Dr. Járó M.: Klimatizáció, világítás és raktározás a múzeumokban. Általános jegyzet. Budapest 1991. T. BRUDER 2001 T. Bruder K.: Kerámiarestaurálás I. ISIS. Erdélyi Magyar Restaurátor Füzetek. Haáz Rezső Alapítvány. Székelyudvarhely 2001, 81-87. T. BRUDER 2002 T. Bruder K.: Kerámiarestaurálás II. ISIS. Erdélyi Magyar Restaurátor Füzetek. Haáz Rezső Alapítvány. Székelyudvarhely 2002, 75-83. RESTORATION OF A TWO-HANDLED URN FROM FELGYŐ-ÜRMÖS-TANYA, GRAVE 68 Edina HAMAR The urn came to light on April 2, 2009, at the Felgyő Ürmöstanya site during the salvage excavations conducted by Csilla Balogh. The urn was described as vessel 1 of Grave 68, a Bronze Age burial. The vessel's extremely poor state of preservation was apparent already during the excavation of the burial and the urn was lifted in situ owing to its fragmentation. Crushed by the weight of the earth, the two-handled urn broke into forty-five fragments. Its breakage surface revealed three layers: a black outer coating, and a dark grey and red core. Its fabric was porous owing to its having been fired in a reducing atmosphere. About 25 per cent of the vessel is missing: a smaller piece from the vessel body, three-quarters of the neck, a part of the rim, the upper and lower junction of one handle, the pointed tip of the other handle and three knobs (Table 1). The earth and the looser carbonate dirt on the vessel body and the breakage surfaces were removed with a combination of mechanical and wet cleaning, while the more strongly adhered dark brown carbonate dirt with the dilute solution of phosphoric acid. The fragments of the urn were glued together with PVB dissolved in 96% alcohol in several steps. After the surviving fragments of the urn had been glued together, the size and form of the vessel's missing section could be assessed. It also became clear that the other vessel handle could not be re-attached at this point because the areas where the handle joined the vessel body on the belly and the rim were missing. The missing portions were filled in first (body, neck and rim; Fig. 2. 2) and the handle was then attached by plastering. The handle attached by temporary gluing was held in place by a 2 mm thick aluminium wire bent into the necessary shape (Fig. 2. 3). Before completing the restoration, the surface of the areas beside the missing portions was isolated with a watery solution of 3-4 % CMC-Na, which was removed after restoration. Owing to the complicated form of the missing neck and rim sections, as well as the temporary reinforcements, the traditional technique of making a negative form used for the restoration of archaeological ceramics could not be applied. Instead, the technique of double-sided negatives applied in the restoration of porcelain was used. The negative was prepared from a wax slab (Fig. 2. 1). The restoration and the tilling of the joined breakage surfaces were performed using coloured gypsum. After consulting with the archaeologist investigating the site, only one of the three missing knobs was restored. The vessel portions filled in with gypsum were not retouched with painting. A second, lighter coloured yellowish-red thin layer of gypsum was used to fill the breakage surfaces and for the neck interior, the rim and the pointed terminals of both handles at the point of attachment in order to compensate for the lack of retouch painting and to enhance the overall aesthetic appearance of the vessel. The surface of the gypsum replacements was coated in three layers with PVB dissolved in 2-3 % and 96 % ethanol. Hamar Edina Móra Ferenc Múzeum H-6720 Szeged, Roosevelt tér 1-3. E-mail: e_hamar@mfm.u-szeged.hu