Component Two: Training and Capacity Building for Technicians and Site Management Professionals
The second component is capacity building and training for professionals and technicians in the care and maintenance of sites with mosaics. This has involved facilitating meetings and conferences, technician-level training in maintenance and basic conservation procedures, and workshops to introduce site management planning principles. In spring 2007, the GCI is organizing a workshop, in collaboration with the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) of Tunisia, concerning the conservation and management of archaeological sites.

	Trainees carrying out cleaning operations, Nabeul, Tunisia

Technician Training, Tunisia (1998-present)
Training of technicians is being undertaken in Tunisia. The aim of this hands-on training initiative is to develop regional teams of skilled technicians who can address basic maintenance and stabilization needs of in situ archaeological mosaics. Since 1998 the GCI has partnered with the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) in Tunisia, to provide practical training in the care and maintenance of in situ archaeological mosaics. The technicians trained through this initiative will become an important element in the INP's efforts to safeguard Tunisia's archaeological heritage.

INP technicians from three regions in Tunisia (Northeast, Central, and East Coast) have thus far participated in the training, which has been carried out principally at the sites of Utica, Thuburbo Majus, Makhtar, Nabeul, Jebel Oust, and Hergla. The trainees are learning:

• how to document mosaics, their condition, and previous treatments;
• how to select appropriate lime-based mortars for the various types of stabilization and repair treatments;
• when and how to carry out specific maintenance and protective interventions, such as removal of vegetation, cleaning, mortar repairs, and reburial;
• how to carry out on-going monitoring of the mosaics;
• how to keep a maintenance file for each mosaic.

	Trainee carrying out stabilization treatment on mosaic, Jebel Oust, Tunisia

Practical instruction is assisted by demonstrations and exercises developed by the instructors. Between campaigns, the technicians have the opportunity to gain additional practical experience on their own, which is later reviewed with the instructors.

To support the training, the GCI prepared didactic and reference materials for the technicians, including a glossary of terms used for graphic documentation, which derives from the larger GCI mosaics glossary (Component One). In addition, the technicians are equipped with tool kits and other practical materials that will assist them in their future work.

Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites Workshop, Tunisia (2007)
This workshop aims to educate and improve the understanding of existing Institut National du Patrimoine (INP) site directors, architects, and young archaeologists about the issues, principles, and practices integral to sustainable archaeological site conservation.

The workshop, organized in partnership with the INP, builds upon the ongoing training of mosaic technicians in Tunisia. This phase of training will focus on broader site conservation concerns, such as issues pertaining to site context, preventive and remedial conservation, presentation, interpretation, and management. The multi-week workshop will explore the methods of values-based assessments to help set priorities and develop a site management plan; architectural conservation and site interventions; theories, practices and methodologies for site conservation; visitor management; and multidisciplinary collaborative work.

The Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites Workshop and the mosaic technician training activity together form a strategic effort to strengthen the INP's institutional capacity for site conservation and, consequently, to improve the overall condition and care of Tunisian archaeological sites and the maintenance of in situ mosaics.

Ninth ICCM Conference (2005)
Formed in 1977, the International Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics is the only international organization devoted to mosaic conservation. One of its main activities has been to convene a conference every three years, which provides the principal forum for professionals in this field of conservation. The published results of these conferences are an essential source of information about mosaic conservation.

The ICCM held its ninth triennial conference in 2005 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The event was coorganized by the GCI and the Institut National du Patrimoine of Tunisia. Two hundred and fifty participants were in attendance and over sixty papers and posters were presented.

The theme of the conference was Lessons Learned: Reflecting on the Theory and Practice of Mosaic Conservation, pertaining to all aspects of mosaic conservation: training; in situ conservation; interventions such as sheltering, treatments, reburial, and lifting and relaying; documentation; presentation; maintenance; and site management. The conference was aimed at professionals in conservation of ancient mosaics, as well as art historians and archaeologists of the Roman world. A particular focus of the ninth conference was encouraging the involvement of conservation professionals from the Arab world. This event marked a unique opportunity to discuss the conservation issues faced in the Arab world, a region rich in Roman mosaics.

In the closing session of the conference, the ICCM Board put forth two general recommendations and on the final afternoon of the conference, an overview was presented of the main messages that emerged during the thematic sessions.

The proceedings from the Ninth ICCM Conference will be published in 2007.

Mosaics Panel, Reburial Colloquium (2003)
In 2003 a colloquium on reburial of archaeological sites was organized by the GCI in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (Intermountain Region) and ICCROM, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 16-21, 2003. The purpose of the colloquium was to gather together professionals from conservation, as well as allied fields such as soil sciences, engineering, and biodeterioration, who have been involved in planning and implementing reburial strategies or who could contribute to a discussion of reburial as a method of protecting exposed archaeological remains. Four themes, with a broad geographical scope, ranged from decision-making to technical matters. Theme 3 consisted of case studies of reburial interventions and included a panel focused on the reburial of ancient floor mosaics. Selected papers from the colloquium were published in a special issue of the journal, Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, in cooperation with ICCROM (Vol. 6, nos. 3-4, 2004). Together, the three papers on reburial of mosaics provide a comprehensive overview of how reburial of mosaics has been practiced, the problems encountered, and the challenges to be met (see Related Publications).

Experts meeting in Cyprus (2002)
A meeting of international experts on the conservation of ancient mosaics was co-organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus in Nicosia, June 11-14, 2002. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together professionals who are committed to the conservation of ancient mosaics to engage in a focused discussion of existing needs in the field, and current initiatives and opportunities for fostering research and establishing collaborative projects. It was intended that the meeting would provide a forum for open discussion on how professionals and organizations involved in mosaics conservation can forge stronger relationships and work in a more integrated way. The meeting was attended by 23 professionals from 11 countries, mainly in Europe and the Mediterranean region. Resulting from the discussions was a series of strategies to address areas of weakness, which have formed the basis for subsequent activities of the Mosaics in Situ project. The participants also issued a concluding statement. (See Related Publications, Conservation, The GCI Newsletter, fall 2002.)

	The Umayyad palace at Khirbet Minya / Horvat Minnim

Management Planning for Sites with Mosaics, Israel (1998-2001)
Archaeological site management addresses the complex issue of preserving and revealing the cultural significance of sites in the face of continuous physical deterioration and impacts from nature and people—principally in the form of tourism and poor management practices—and in the context of the increasing complexity of interpretations and meanings associated with archaeological sites. In planning for sites with mosaics, practitioners and managers have little guidance in translating the significance and values attributed to mosaics into decisions about whether a mosaic should be detached or left in situ, whether it should be reburied or exposed for presentation, and the type and extent of treatment or other interventions.

In order to address the larger context of conservation interventions on mosaics, the site of Khirbet Minya/Horvat Minnim was chosen to initiate management planning for archaeological sites with mosaics. The initiative began in 1997 in collaboration with the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority and with the support of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Khirbet Minya/Horvat Minnim is located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The site was excavated mainly during the 1930s and identified as an Umayyad palace built during the rule of the Caliph Al-Walid (705-715). It is one of a number of Umayyad palaces located mainly in the Levant region, but the only one of its kind in Israel. Some of the rooms are highly decorated with well-preserved mosaic floors in geometric designs, which are among the highlights of the monument and which attest to the end of the long tradition of mosaics in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Khirbet Minya/Horvat Minnim project team completed the initial stages of the planning process with a series of meetings and field assessment campaigns and the results have been compiled in an assessment report for the site. The report includes a compilation of existing information about the site, assessments of significance, condition, and the management context, and options for future conservation and use. The assessment report will be used by the site authorities as the basis for making decisions about the future of the site, which is currently closed to the public.

Last updated: April 2006