Heritage Victoria’s Conservator Susanna Collis explains the challenges in conserving the delicate dominoes found during an archeological dig at Viewbank Homestead.

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TRANSCRIPT

SUSANNA COLLIS: The dominoes from Viewbank were so small, yet such a complex object to conserve, due to the nature of the materials. They were bone and wood with a copper alloy pin through the middle. Those three materials actually need to be treated in completely different ways with completely different approaches.

In this case, the conservator started by brushing and removing the dirt from the wood. And because they were damp, we can use a solvent to do that. And the solvent will also help get the moisture out of the mental element of the object. Of course, we didn't want any moisture, or any solvent, to touch the bone. Because the bone was quite fragile. So great care was taken, as much as possible, to isolate one part of treating the object to the other part of the object.

After that, very little was done to the material. Some of the wood of the domino was quite friable. Quite spongy. And was in danger of literally disintegrating around the metal pin and from the base of the bone. So in that case, the conservator consolidated the wood. Consolidating the wood usually involves the adding of some kind of water soluble resin into the fabric of the wood. Adding something to wood is very difficult to reverse. So you are adding something to the material. And that's something we very seriously consider and think about in conservation.

So, as I said, such a small object still demanded a very complex and well researched and well thought out approach.