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To restore a heritage
WHAT-TO-DO - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - JULY 2007
To restore a heritage
Digging into the past
How many archaeologists does it take to make an 18th century cannon shine like new? Answer: three. How long does it take? About two years.
?But it all depends on the size and the condition of the cannon,? laughs archaeologist Michael Pateman.
Making old things look new is part of Pateman?s job as senior assistant archaeologist for the National Museum of The Bahamas. With the help of two assistants?Romanoff Bethel and Torrey McDonald?he brings the past to life in a laboratory at historic Fort Charlotte, overlooking West Bay Street and Arawak Cay.
Here, Pateman and his team restore metal items in electrolysis baths. Everything from cannons and cutlery to toys and tools are recovered from shipwrecks, the ruins of old buildings and archeological digs around The Bahamas.
The laboratory is housed in a small building known as the Advanced Guardhouse at Fort Charlotte, which welcomes visitors Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm. Here, the conservators submerge artefacts in electrolysis baths to stop oxidation, an important step in the restoration process.
Objects are treated from four to six weeks, or even longer, depending on their condition. Artefacts are cleaned every week, scrubbed under running water and then returned to their baths.
Everything that comes out of the ground, except for wood, is washed, catalogued and analysed for possible later display in a museum.
There are probably thousands of pieces to be rescued from the past and the conservators admit to having a long road ahead of them.
?Each piece takes anywhere from two weeks to years to be treated,? says Bethel. ?We have to constantly monitor the progress of the pieces and wait for the true beauty of each artefact to unveil itself. But the process will become easier in a few months.?
Relief will come from a major upgrade of the existing system used to free metal pieces from years of rust and dirt. ?We are also acquiring new testing equipment such as a specific gravity scale,? says Bethel. With this and other equipment ?we will be able to treat about five times as many objects as we do now.?
Most Bahamian islands have historical sites, including shipwrecks, that yield the items on which Pateman?s team works.
Saving Clifton plantation
Currently under treatment are about a dozen artefacts from one of the best-preserved slave-era sites in The Bahamas, the Clifton Plantation located in western New Providence.
Archaeologists have been at work there since 1990, but the artefacts now being restored were discovered in excavations undertaken in the summer of 2006.
This work is part of the Clifton Heritage Park Development, launched by the government this year. Some of the artefacts came from the great house, once home to slave owners.
It was occupied by Thomas Matthews in 1851, long after slavery ended in 1838, when a disastrous fire completely gutted the house. Excavations uncovered bottles and windows, ceramic bowls, cups and metal items?a treasure trove for archaeologists.
?Everything that was excavated had survived the fire,? says Pateman. ?If you go into the basement there?s ashes from the fire [but] we?ve found eggshells still intact from the 1800s and that?s amazing.
?We hope that the excavations will help with our interpretations of Clifton?s past. The archaeology gives us a story of what happened at the Great House,? said Pateman.
It was the bottom-most layer that yielded most of the ceramic and glass artefacts. ?In some cases, they are in the location that they were in when the fire occurred.
The topmost, and thickest, layer is several feet of rubble, the result of walls that collapsed in hurricanes, especially those that hit Nassau in the 1920s.
Clifton is now getting a facelift. The great house will be stabilized to prevent further deterioration.
Restoration of several slave dwellings will begin during the first phase of work that will turn Clifton into a true heritage site. One of these houses is being restored to its original state when it was occupied by plantation slaves. Another will be restored to its condition circa 1950.
In time, Clifton will be a park as well as a heritage site and there will be walking trails as well as an interpretive centre that will contain, no doubt, information that Pateman?s team is uncovering today.
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