| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. A significant difficulty in documenting cleaning processes for polychromed works is the overall recording of the stratigraphy of the structures involved, especially the non-original layers, which arc composed of heterogeneous materials deposited on the surface. When these layers are removed, information about their stratigraphic configuration disappears. Archaeological stratigraphy provides interesting methods to document stratigraphic sequences. The Harris Matrix is a diagram that describes the chronological relationships between layers and other stratigraphic units. Adequately fitted, the Matrix can be used to record the removed layers and to contribute to a more accurate documentation, which will allow a future researcher to know what the state of the polychromed work was before the cleaning process.
CONCLUSIONS. The Harris Matrix is a means to record complex strati-graphic sequences, whatever the origin of the stratification. This study proposes the use of the Matrix to record the non-original layers deposited on the surface of polychromed works in a diagrammatic form. The strati-graphic data can be displayed in such a way that it is possible to understand the configuration of the layers involved. Undoubtedly, there is, at present, no other more satisfactory method of gathering information from a stratigraphic structure. Despite the fact that the strati-graphic diagram may seem very schematic, it is a method which has sufficient flexibility to allow the introduction of variations in the type ot information gathered, depending on the nature of the data the conservator wishes to record. This is an important detail that allows the inclusion of ,1 wide and heterogeneous sequence of data (distribution and composition of materials, cleaning agents employed, kind of interfaces or unremoved units). Thus, the diagram becomes a synthesis of the fundamental stratigraphic data. Although not discussed here, this method can be incorporated into a number of computerized recording systems (there are several software packages designed for representing the stratigraphic sequences used in archaeology). The stratigraphic information can be recorded in a database, which will make it easy to compare the structures of diverse works. The results of this study will be reported in a future publication. To sum up, the Matrix could indeed become a useful tool for the conservation of polychromed artifacts, but there is still much research to be carried out in this field. |
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