Queen Anne's Revenge
Laboratory Excavation Report
UAB Conservation Laboratory, Greenville
Sarah Watkins-Kenney QAR Project Conservator
Wendy Welsh, QAR Laboratory Manager
Eric Nordgren, Project Assistant Conservator
September/October 2005

 

QAR Conservation Report
September/October

ECU Graduate Assistants
In mid September four East Carolina University (ECU) Graduate Assistants started work at the conservation lab for the fall semester. The students come from three different ECU departments, Anthropology, History (Maritime Studies Program) and Cultural Resource Management. This semester the Anthropology Department is funding one of the graduate assistants. The QAR Project is funding the other three through a grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation.

Kim Smith is a returning graduate assistant who worked at the lab last year (Sept. 2004). One of the tasks she helped with then was measuring dimensions of cask hoops. Kim now in the second year of the MA Program in Anthropology has decided to focus her thesis on further research of cask hoop use and manufacture in the early 18th century. Her research will hopefully aid our understanding of the cask material from the QAR. Jim Parker is also in the MA Anthropology Program as a first year student. Jim acquired his BS in Anthropology from Mercyhurst College and his interest lies in historical archaeology. Stephanie Hayden is a first year student in the MA Program in Maritime Studies who obtained her BA in Anthropology at Arizona State and also studied at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Hayden would like to study the role of women and other groups left out of the historical record as well as integrate conservation and marine archaeology into educational curriculums for children. Valerie Grussing is presently in her third year of the Coastal Resource Management PhD Program. Valerie attained her BA in History at NC State and her MA in Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Valerie's dissertation topic will focus on of heritage tourism related to North Carolina shipwrecks.

The graduate assistants have helped with a range of tasks over the past two months. All students have been introduced to the different desalination treatments and the significance of solution testing. Ballast stones have been a priority from entering backlogged data of the stones already at the museum to weighing, measuring and marking the more recently recovered stones with their QAR numbers in preparation for their transfer to the museum. Measurements (diameter and weight) of hundreds of lead shot cast in two part moulds have been made as part of the analysis of these artifacts for the interim report. All assistants have taken turns applying 10% tannic acid to the surface of Cannon 4 . The wood frames of the ship are close to entering PEG treatment so the graduate students have been assisting with calculating the density and moisture content and the before PEG treatment photography. Graduate assistants have also helped with two different Saturday tour events at the lab. We greatly appreciate the significant these students are making - they really are invaluable to the lab and we thank ECU and The Golden Leaf for supporting student research.

Cannon 22 (a.k.a. Bertha)
By the end of September most of the stones and other objects had been removed from the top portion of Bertha and the aim changed from removing stones to cleaning the concretion from the surface of the top portion of the cannon to reveal it in position as though in a cross section of the as recovered concreted object. Thus Bertha has now been excavated halfway, revealing the amount of stones and concretion that encompassed the cannon. For the most part the cannon surface is solid though soft near some edges and reinforcement rings; small concretion layers were left to protect fragile areas. The half excavated concretion was documented with drawings and many photographs. Work will progress on Bertha and any new findings will be reported. (This work being funded by National Geographic Magazine.)

Public Outreach
Being a NC State Conservation facility, the lab has to balance time spent getting the job done with relating what it is we do to get it done to the public. Though the facility is not open to the public, occasional lab tours have been given to interested professional or academic groups, as for example on Saturday, September 24th. The North Carolina Archaeology Society (NCAS) held a meeting at East Carolina University. They concluded their meeting with a tour of the QAR Lab facilities inviting members and their guests to view part of the artifact collection. NCAS sponsored NC Archaeology Month this year in October when different archaeological events around the state aimed to convey the fun and importance of archaeology to the general public. The QAR lab was proud to participate in Archaeology Month holding an "Open Day" Saturday, October 22nd.

During the Open Day over 200 people, guided by QAR staff and volunteers had the opportunity to see an assortment of artifacts from the shipwreck, ranging from small finds like pewter, lead shot, glass, and rope to larger objects like cannon, cask hoops and wooden ship structure, illustrating the different stages of the conservation processes and the importance of each step.

The lab would like to thank everyone who worked and came out to the Open Day making it such a success!

 

 

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