GEÇMİŞİ YAŞATMAK: YENİKAPI BATIKLARI-KEEPING THE PAST ALIVE: THE YENİKAPI SHIPWRECKS

Abstract

The salvage excavations carried out in the Yenikapı quarter of İstanbul by the İstanbul Archaeological Museums between 2004 and 2013 have yielded the Theodosius Harbor which was known to have been located on the shore of Marmara Sea in Constantinople during the Byzantine Period. The 37 shipwrecks found during the excavations dating from the 5th to the 11th centuries AD, represent the largest collection of medieval ships unearthed from a single excavation site. The present paper discusses the excavation, documentation, removal, and conservation processes of the 31 shipwrecks excavated under the responsibility of the İstanbul University’s Department of Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects. We used maximum water content measurements, and FT-IR, SEM, SEM-EDX, XRF, XRD analyses to determine the degree of degradation of waterlogged timbers and the conditions leading to this degradation. Both chemical and mechanical methods were applied to remove iron corrosion products from the wood following desalination. For conservation of these waterlogged timbers, we mainly use PEG (polyethylene glycol) and melamine-formaldehyde resin when appropriate. The melamine-formaldehyde method was preferred when the water content in the ship’s wood was high and the wood density was low. The timbers which were relatively in a better condition and more likely to be displayed in the future were first impregnated with PEG with a molecular weight of 400, 2000, 3350 and 4000 based on the density and the maximum water content of the wood, followed by vacuum freeze drying.