Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road

Neville Agnew, Editor

1997

480 pages

PDF file size: 27.9 MB


Description

At the Mogao grottoes, a World Heritage Site near Dunhuang in the Gobi Desert, generations of Buddhist monks created hundreds of rock temples. Nearly five hundred of these grottoes remain, lined with painted clay sculptures and wall paintings that depict legends, portraits, customs, and the arts of China over a one-thousand-year period.

This volume of symposium proceedings of an international conference on the conservation of grotto sites, marks the culmination of the first phase of the Getty Conservation Institute’s collaborative project with the State Bureau of Culture Relics of the People’s Republic of China and the Dunhuang Academy.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
    Miguel Angel Corzo
  • Preface
    Neville Agnew
  • Site Map of the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang
  • Map of the Silk Road
  • China Dynasty Table
  • Dunhuang Art: The Treasure of the Silk Road
    Duan Wenjie
  • An Overview of Protection of Grottoes in China
    Huang Kezhong
  • Fifty Years of Protection of the Dunhuang Grottoes
    Fan Jinshi
  • Projects of the Getty Conservation Institute and the State Bureau of Cultural Relics: The Mogao and Yungang Grottoes
    Neville Agnew, Huang Kezhong
  • KEYNOTE ADDRESS
  • The Management of Ancient Chinese Cave Temples: A Site-Management Training Course at the Yungang Grottoes
    Sharon Sullivan
  • Management of Tourism at Buddhist Sites
    Robertson E. Collins
  • The Dambulla Rock Temple Complex, Sri Lanka: Ten Years of Management, Research, and Conservation
    Senake Bandaranayake
  • Site-Management Lessons from Canyon de Chelly, Lascaux, Sigiriya, and Bamian
    Jeffrey W. Cody
  • The Role of Documentation in Defining Conservation Strategies at Grotto Sites
    Stephen Rickerby
  • Conservation Survey of the Tam Ting Caves
    Benita Johnson
  • KEYNOTE ADDRESS
  • Complexity and Communication: Principles of In Situ Conservation
    Sharon Cather
  • The Treatment of Two Chinese Wall Painting Fragments
    Cynthia Luk, Ingrid Neuman, James Martin, Cynthia Kuniej Berry, Judy Greenfield
  • Paintings on Silk and Paper from Dunhuang at the British Museum: Conservation Methods
    Lore Erwine Fleming
  • Conservation Treatment of Two Ming Dynasty Temple Wall Paintings
    Eric Gordon
  • Research on Protection of Ancient Floor Tiles in the Mogao Grottoes
    Gao Nianzu, Jia Ruigang, Wang Jinyu
  • A Chinese Wall Painting and a Palace Hall Ceiling: Materials, Technique, and Conservation
    Sally Malenka, Beth A. Price
  • The Conservation of Tempera Mural Paintings and Architectural Finishes
    Constance S. Silver
  • KEYNOTE ADDRESS
  • Geotechnical Issues in the Conservation of Sites
    Robert E. Englekirk
  • Review of Stabilization Projects at the Mogao Grottoes
    Sun Rujian
  • Stabilization and Consolidation of the Kizil Grottoes
    Jiang Huaying, Huang Kezhong
  • Application of Cartridge-Type Grouting in Grotto Conservation
    Zhong Shihang
  • Techniques for Reinforcement of the Majishan Grottoes
    Yi Wuzhi, Lang Xiangui
  • Chemical Consolidation of Conglomerate and Sand at the Mogao Grottoes
    Li Zuixiong, Nevillew Agnew, Po-Ming Lin
  • Research into the Control of Damage by Windblown Sand at the Mogao Grottoes
    Ling Yuquan, Qu Jianjun, Fan Jinshi, Li Yunhe
  • Desert-Adapted Plants for Control of Windblown Sand
    Po-Ming Lin, Neville Agnew, Li Yunhe, Wang Wanfu
  • Conservation of the Engraved Rock Wall in the Temiya Cave, Japan
    Akito Uchida
  • Geological Environment of the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang
    Nobuaki Kuchitsu, Duan Xiuye
  • Geotechnical Stability Problems of the Dafosi Grotto
    Gerd Gudehus, Thomas Niedhart
  • KEYNOTE ADDRESS
  • Conservation of Subterranean Historic and Prehistoric Monuments: The Importance of the Environment and Microclimate
    Jacques Brunet, Jean Vouvé, Philippe Malaurent
  • Deposition of Atmospheric Particles within the Yungang Grottoes
    Christos S. Christoforou, Lynn G. Salmon, Glen R. Cass
  • Control of Particle Deposition within the Yungang Grottoes
    Christos S. Christoforou, Lynn G. Salmon, Timothy J. Gerk, Glen R. Cass
  • Microclimate of Cave Temples 53 and 194, Mogao Grottoes
    Sadatoshi Miura, Tadateru Nishiura, Zhang Yongjun, Wang Baoyi, Li Shi
  • Environmental Monitoring at the Mogao Grottoes
    Shin Maekawa, Zhang Yongjun, Wang Baoyi, Fu Wenli, Xue Ping
  • A Nondestructive Method for Determining Weathering and Consolidation of Stone
    Zhong Shihang, Huang Kezhong
  • Investigations of the Deterioration and Conservation of the Dafosi Grotto
    He Ling, Ma Tao, Rolf Snethlage, Eberhard Wendler
  • Color Change of Pigments in the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang
    Nobuaki Kuchitsu, Duan Xiuye, Chie Sano, Guo Hong, Li Jun
  • Analysis of Wall Painting Fragments from the Mogao and the Bingling Temple Grottoes
    Ian N. M. Wainwright, Elizabeth J. Moffatt, P. Jane Sirois, Gregory S. Young
  • Color Measurement at the Mogao Grottoes
    Michael R. Schilling, Li Jun, Lie Tie Chao, Guo Hong, Li Zuixiong, Duan Xu Xe
  • Scientific Examination of the Sculptural Polychromy of Cave 6 at Yungang
    Francesca Piqué
  • Pigment Analysis of Polychrome Statuary and Wall Paintings of the Tiantishan Grottoes
    Zhou Guoxin, Zhang Jianquan, Cheng Huaiwan
  • Lead Isotope Analyses of Some Chinese and Central Asian Pigments
    Robert H. Brill, Csilla Felker-Dennis, Hiroshi Shirahata, Emile C. Joel
  • Formation and Stability of Chinese Barium Copper-Silicate Pigments
    Hans G. Wiedemann, Gerhard Bayer
  • The Polychrome Terra-cotta Army of the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang
    Wu Y. Onggi, Zhou Tie, Zhang Zhijun, Erwin Emmerling, Cristina Thieme
  • Contributors
  • Illustration Credits

About the Authors

Neville Agnew is associate director, programs, at the Getty Conservation Institute. He joined the Institute in 1988 as deputy director of the Scientific Research Program after heading the conservation department of the Queensland Museum, Australia. Prior to that time, he pursued a career in academic and research chemistry. He has led many conservation projects of the Institute, including ones in New Mexico, Tanzania, Egypt, Ecuador, and China, among others.

Janet Baker holds the positions of director, Public Programs, and curator of Asian art at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, California. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and has traveled extensively in China, Japan, and Tibet.

Senake Bandaranayake is professor of archaeology and head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya and director of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has been the archaeological director of the Unesco-Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Project at Sigiriya and Dambulla since the early 1980s. He was president of ICOMOS Sri Lanka from 1992 to 1994 and is an archeological advisor on Angkor to the director general of Unesco.

Gerhard Bayer is a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Institute of Non-metallic Materials, in Zurich, Switzerland.

Cynthia Kuniej Berry participated in the 1993 Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road Conference in Dunhuang, representing the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rocky Mountain Conservation Center, where she had previously been associate painting conservator. She is currently a paintings conservator in private practice.

Robert H. Brill taught chemistry at Upsala College before joining The Corning Museum of Glass in New York in 1960. Since then, he has done scientific research on ancient glass and related materials.

Jacques Brunet is an engineer at the Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques, Paris, and chief of the Grottes Ornées section. He has been working on the problems of the conservation of rock art since 1973 and has carried out several missions in Algeria, Malta, Brazil, and India. He is a member of the International Council of Museums.

Glen R. Cass is professor of environmental engineering and mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. His research interests center on control of air pollution problems.

Sharon Cather has been a member of the Courtauld Institute’s Conservation of Wall Painting Department since it was established in 1985. During 1981–82, she was a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and then taught at Cambridge University until joining the Courtauld. Her research interests focus on environmental causes of deterioration and the development of improved methods of monitoring.

Christos S. Christoforou has degrees in mechanical engineering. His research interests include methods for measurement of airborne and deposited particle size distributions, modeling of airflows and particle mechanics inside buildings, and control of indoor air quality.

Jeffrey W. Cody is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Previously, he was a research scholar at Tongji University in Shanghai. In addition to historic preservation, his research interests include the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chinese architecture and the history of American multinational architectural practices.

Robertson E. Collins is an author, lecturer, and consultant and chairman of the Committee on Cultural Tourism, International Council on Monuments and Sites, Paris. He is a former vice-chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a trustee of the Victorian Society, and a member of the Society of Architectural Historians. He lives in Singapore and is the president of Tourism Development and Heritage Conservation Pte. Ltd.

Duan Wenjie is director of the Dunhuang Academy, Ganzu Province, the People’s Republic of China. He has been director of the academy for more than fifty years.

Duan Xiuye is a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy, the People’s Republic of China. His background is in chemistry, and his main interest is the preservation and restoration of mural paintings and the analyses of pigments.

Erwin Emmerling studied the conservation of art at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Institut für der Technologic der Malerei, Stuttgart, Germany from 1972 to 1977. Since 1984, he has been conservator at the Bayerisches Landesarnt für Denkmalpflege, Munich, Germany.

Robert E. Englekirk is a consulting structural engineer and chief executive officer of Englekirk and Sabol, Inc., Los Angeles. He served as adjunct professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current academic association is with the University of California, San Diego.

Fan Jinshi is deputy director of the Dunhuang Academy and vice president of the Dunhuang Grottoes Conservation Research Foundation. She has participated in many archaeological studies, including the survey and excavation of ancient tombs, the ruins in front of the Mogao grottoes, the ruins of the city of Dunhuang, and the age and contents of the Mogao grottoes.

Csilla Felker-Dennis held a conservator’s position at the Fogg Museum’s Objects Conservation Laboratory for eight years. Sunsequently, she is a conservator in private practice in Texas and has been involved in conservation surveys of the region’s museums and historic sites including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Kansas.

Lore Erwin “Winnie” Fletliing’s first position in conservation was in the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books of the British Museum. After about two years, she transferred to the Department of Oriental Antiquities. In 1975, the Department of Conservation was created; until her retirement in 1995, she was the head of the Eastern Pictorial Art Section.

Fu Wenli has been working at the Conservation Institute of Dunhuang Academy since 1988, after graduating from Gansu Meteorological College in 1988.

Gao Nianzu, a senior engineer with the Grotto Design and Conservation Department of the Chinese National institute of Cultural Property, has done extensive research in consolidation of the surface of stone sculptures.

Timothy J. Gerk is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Eric Gordon is senior conservator of paintings at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is responsible for Western as well as Eastern paintings on fabric and panels. He has treated Chinese wall paintings and wall painting fragments at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and he has worked at regional centers in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Oberlin, Ohio.

Judy Greenfield was objects conservator at the Rocky Mountain Conservation Center prior to establishing a private practice in 1995. She has worked as a conservator at the Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Edinburgh; English Heritage, London; and the Horniman Museum, London.

Gerd Gudehus became full professor and chairman of the Department of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering at the Institute of Soil and Rock Mechanics, Karlsruhe University in 1973. He is head of the Soil Mechanics Section of the German National Geotechnical Society and is working on a research project of the German Ministry for Science and Technologies in which the Dafosi grotto is included.

Guo Hong is a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy. His background is in physics, and he is mainly interested in the analysis of stones and pigments.

He Ling is a chemist who, since 1990, has been a member of the Technical Center for the Preservation of Cultural Property of Shaanxi Province in Xian.

Huang Kezhong, a senior engineer and deputy director of the Chinese National Institute of Cultural Property, specializes in relics conservation and geology.

Jia Ruiguang is a senior engineer and deputy director of the Grotto Design and Conservation Department of the Chinese National Institute of Cultural Property.

Jiang Huaying is deputy general engineer and deputy director of the Grotto Conservation Department of the People’s Republic of China and is a senior engineer with the Chinese National Institute of Cultural Property.

Emile C. Joel is a research chemist specializing in the application of mass spectrometric techniques to provenance studies of archaeological and historical materials through lead isotope analysis and the development of a lead isotope ratio database.

Benita Johnson is a senior lecturer at the University of Canberra, Australia, where she teaches objects conservation at the National Center for Cultural Heritage Science Studies. She has worked at the University of California at Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History; and at the Getty Conservation Institute. She has been a Fellow of the International Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1987.

Nobuaki Kuchitsu is a researcher at the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties whose primary interests are the science of the alteration of rocks and minerals and the conservation of stone monuments.

Lang Xiangui was senior engineer, now retired, with the Gansu Construction Science Research Institute.

Li Jun is a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy. His background is in chemistry, and his interests lie in the analysis of pigments.

Li Shi is a physicist and researcher of the preservation Research Institute, Dunhuang Academy. His main area of research is the analysis of binding materials of paintings.

Li Yunhe is deputy director of the Conservation Institute of the Dunhuang Academy. He has been involved in relics conservation for forty years.

Li Zuixiong, director and research fellow of the Conservation Institute of the Dunhuang Academy, also teaches part time at the Chemistry Department, Lanzhou University and the Conservation Department, Fudan Universiry.

Po-Ming Lin, a former senior research fellow at the Getty Conservation Institute, is presently a conservation engineer consultant specializing in rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering issues.

Ling Yuquan is a professor specializing in windblown sand physics at the Lanzhou Desert Research Institute.

Cynthia Luk, associate conservator of paintings at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, has attended International Academic Projects wall paintings conservation seminars in the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

Ma Tao is a chemist who, since 1990, he has been a member of the Technical Center for the Preservation of Cultural Property of Shaanxi Province in Xian.

Philippe Malaurent is a graduate engineer in the Centre d’Hydrogéologie, Université de Bordeaux I. He runs the computer department of the laboratory. He has developed microhydrogeological and meteorological methods to study subterranean environments and the deterioration processes of these media.

Sally Malenka is associate conservator of decorative arts and sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

James Martin is director of analytical services and research, Williamstown Art Conservation Center. He interned at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge University. His teaching experience includes courses at the Getty Conservation Institute, National Gallery of Victoria, Smithsonian Institution, and Williams College.

Dev Mehta is employed in the Indian Administrative Service and has worked as the chairman of the State Tourism Corporation, municipal commissioner of the Pune City, before working as metropolitan commissioner of Bombay Metropolitan Regional Authority.

Sadatoshi Miura is a conservation scientist and director of the Department of Conservation Science, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. He is a member of the Technical Committee for the Joint Conservation Project of Mogao Grottoes between China and Japan.

Elizabeth A. Moffatt joined the Canadian Conservation Institute in 1978, where she is a senior conservation scientist in the Analytical Research Services laboratory. Her interests include the application of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to conservation science and the analysis of artists’ materials and ethnographic paints.

Thomas Neidhart has been a member of the Institute of Soil and Rock Mechanics, where he developed computer programs to model wave propagation in layered soils and dynamic soil structure interaction problems and has also prepared reports on stabilization methods for historical retaining walls of castles and ruins.

Ingrid Neuman is associate conservator of objects at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. She was employed by the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and has conducted numerous workshops on exhibition and storage techniques for three-dimensional objects.

Tadateru Nishiura is a conservation scientist and head of the Research and Program Office of Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation, Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. He is also a member of the Technical Committee.

Francesca Piqué is a former research fellow at the Getty Conservation Institute. She joined the Institute staff in 1996 as conservation specialist, Special Projects.

Beth A. Price has been the conservation chemist at the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1990. Previously, she was synthesis chemist for six years at FMC Corporation, Princeton, New Jersey.

Qu Jianjun is an assistant research fellow at the Lanzhou Desert Research Institute.

Stephen Rickerby worked as a conservator for English Heritage and member of the GCI Tomb of Nefertari project in Egypt. He remained with the Nefertari project until its completion in 1992 and has worked as a private wall-paintings conservator in various countries since 1989.

Lynn G. Salmon has been a research engineer at the California Institute of Technology since 1986, where she specializes in the study of effects of atmospheric pollution on works of art.

Chie Sano is a senior researcher at the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties

Michael R. Schilling has worked at the Getty Conservation Institute since 1983, presently holding the position of associate scientist. He has been involved in a number of GCI collaborative projects.

Shin Maekawa has been head of the Environmental Sciences section at the Getty Conservation Institute since 1990, responsible for the Institute’s environmental monitoring projects.

Hiroshi Shirahata has worked as a professor of environmental geochemistry at Muroran Institute of Technology and, since 1995, has held the position of professor, Division of Chemistry, Sichuan Union University, Chengdu, China.

Constance S. Silver participated in many conservation projects throughout the world. She specializes in the planning and implementation of projects for the conservation and restoration of the art and decorative finishes of complex historic interiors.

P. Jane Sirois worked with the National Hydrology Research Institute at Environment Canada and the Geological Survey of Canada, undertaking geochemical analysis. In 1982 she joined the Canadian Conservation Institute, where she is a conservation scientist in the Analytical Research Services laboratory.

Rolf Snethlage is a mineralogist. Since 1977, he has been a member of the Bavarian State Conservation Office and head of its physico-chemical laboratory. He is a member of International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and EUROCARE Working groups.

Sharon Sullivan initiated and managed the Cultural Resource Management Unit of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for the management of Aboriginal and historic places in New South Wales. Later, she became a regional manager for the service and then deputy director. She is now director of the Australian Heritage Commission, responsible for the development of a comprehensive register of areas of cultural and natural significance in Australia and for the promotion of its conservation.

Sun Rujian, a specialist in architecture, began working at the Mogao grottoes in the 1940s. He was responsible for repair and stabilization projects at the Mogao grottoes from the 1950s to the 1980s and managed the project on environmental protection in the 1980s. He was formerly director and research fellow of the Protection Research Institute in Dunhuang. He retired in 1993.

Cristina Thieme has taught conservation at Gibilmanna (Palermo), Italy, and has worked for the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Miinchen, Germany since 1991.

Akito Uchida has been an architectural conservator with the Conservation Techniques section of the Center for Archaeological Operations, Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute, since 1980.

Jean Vouvé is a teacher, researcher, and director of the Centre d’Hydrogéologie, Université de Bordeaux I. He has also worked on the problems of appropriate conservation methods for historic monuments.

Jan N. M. Wainwright joined the Canadian Conservation Institute in 1972, where he became a senior conservation scientist in the Analytical Research Services laboratory.

Wang Baoyi joined the conservation research team at Dunhuang Academy in 1990. He has been involved in research projects dealing with grottoes environments and the digital imaging process.

Wang Jinyu, assistant research fellow with the Dunhuang Academy, has been working in the conservation of the Dunhuang grotto relics for seventeen years. He has been engaged in a number of provincial and international (China-Japan and China-U.S.) collaboration projects.

Wang Wanfu is a junior botanist. In 1992, he joined the Dunhuang Academy and has been in charge of monitoring and maintenance programs for both synthetic and vegetation windbreak fences.

Wang Xudong, geologist, is on the junior staff of the Dunhuang Academy assisting in the supervision implementation of this project. He has also been involved in the conservation of the wall paintings at Yulin grottoes.

Eberhard Wendler is a chemist who has been on the scientific staff of the Bavarian State Conservation Office and the Institute of Geology of the University of Munich.

Hans G. Wiedemann is visiting professor at Birkbeck College, University of London. His research has focused on thermoanalytical methods in chemistry, physics, and archaeometry. He has also worked on the development of thermoanalytical instruments and accessories with Mettler-Toledo AG, Greifensee, Switzerland.

Wu Y. Onggi is vice director of the Museum of the Terracotta Army in Lintong, the People’s Republic of China.

Xie Tingfan is a senior engineer and vice president of the Yungang Grotto Cultural Relics Institute, and a member of the Special Grotto Committee of the Cultural Relics Protection Technology Association of China.

Xue Ping is a student at the Conservation Department of Shanghai Fudan University. In 1990, he began working at the Conservation Institute of the Dunhuang Academy after four years as a guide there.

Yi Wuzhi was a senior engineer with the Chinese Construction Science Research Institutfrom 1956 to 1970, mainly engaged in the study of construction materials. From 1970 to 1991, he was involved in design and engineering techniques and in 1991 he joined the Chinese New Building Materials Group Construction Corporation as vice general engineer.

Gregory S. Young joined the Canadian Conservation Institute, where he is a conservation scientist in the Analytical Research Services laboratory. His interests include the application of microanalytical techniques in conservation of stone and biogenic materials.

Yuan Jinghu is an engineer and director of the Technical Protection Department of the Yungang Grotto Cultural Relics Research Institute, and a member of the Cultural Relics Protection Technology Association of China.

Zhang Jianquan is vice chairman of the Department of Cultural Relics Conservation, Gansu Province

Zhang Yongjun has been working on various projects at the Dunhuang Academy since 1988. He has been involved in research subjects dealing with climate affecting the deterioration of wall paintings and the impact of visitation on the microenvironment of caves at the Mogao grottoes.

Zhang Zhijun has worked at the Museum of the Terra-cotta Army since 1982.

Zhong Shihang is a senior engineer and director of the Tunnel Division, the Chinese Academy of Railway Science specializing in civil engineering and applied geophysics. He has also engaged in conservation and exploration projects in more than ten important cultural sites.

Zhou Guoxin is deputy director of the Coating Materials Research Institute, Lanzou Coating Materials Industrial Research Institute. He specializes in the application of X-ray and thermal analyses to archaeological research.

Zhou Tie has worked at the Museum of the Terra-cotta Army since 1982.

Biographical information was unavailable for Cheng Huaiwen, Duan Xu Xe, Huang Jizhong, and Li Tie Chao.