CultureComment

This is a rare example of a 16th-century Turkish ivory hilt, delicately carved in relief with arabesque designs of interlacing foliage scrolls.

This morning my students showed up early all set to start today’s lesson on ivory sources. After my lecture they were so excited to discover that they can actually tell the difference between elephant, mammoth, hippo, walrus, warthog, sperm whale and narwhal ivory. They all aced the quiz. Then they showed me the ivory objects they had selected from the Walters website and identified what kind of ivory they were. The sad thing is that what we take for granted remains so difficult for them. We would never have the patience to wait so long for images to appear on the monitor. At tea break we had visits from a Greek and several Germans, all thinking about ways to collaborate with the Institute. At lunch two Kurdish members of the Institute’s board visited and stayed to watch the students show off their new skills.

In the afternoon we worked in the laboratory looking at different types of ivory under the microscope, taking photomicrographs, and making a tool to measure Schreger lines on elephant and mammoth ivory. The students learned the hot needle test for synthetic ivory–always a hit as the needle penetrates the surface and smoke and fumes rise from the sample. Of course, then I had to break it to them that it is unlikely they will ever do this popular test on an actual artifact and that I demonstrate it only to show how destructive it is.

Tomorrow morning we will visit a local museum to look at their ivory.

Terry

Our chief conservator, Terry Drayman-Weisser, has returned to Iraq. She visited there in May, and wrote as a guest blogger here on Culture Comment. She is the director of conservation and technical research, at the Walters Art Museum, and travels to Iraq to assist with conservation efforts there. She will be guest-blogging again, during her return trip.

There was much discussion at dinner last night about someone being caught at a checkpoint here with explosives in the car. I believe the driver was on the road to Kirkuk. Still, this area is relatively safe compared to Baghdad.

This alabaster relief is Assyrian. It was once painted. Conservators have determined what it must have looked like, by finding tiny remnants of the original pigments.

The rooster went off much earlier this morning. I don’t think this rooster and I are destined to stay on good terms. Today was my first day with the new class. The students are as enthusiastic and eager to learn as the group I taught in May. There is also a “master trainer” sitting in on the class from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. She and a Kurdish conservator who was in my May class will be learning all they can to take on coordinating training as the program transitions from the Americans to the Iraqis. They are both bright and talented, so the future for the Institute looks positive.

My students all went on the Walters website today to learn how to locate works of art. Part of their homework assignment is to select an ivory object from the collection for further discussion in class. I also assigned them the Walters website education activity, “Integrating the Arts“, to re-color the Assyrian relief. Once they found it I could not get them to take their afternoon break. They were all totally mesmerized.

I must prepare now for tomorrow’s class. I just hope that darn rooster sleeps in.

Terry

Our chief conservator, Terry Drayman-Weisser, has returned to Iraq. She visited there in May, and wrote as a guest blogger here on Culture Comment. She is the director of conservation and technical research, at the Walters Art Museum, and travels to Iraq to assist with conservation efforts there. She will be guest-blogging again, during her return trip.

I awoke this morning with the roosters and sat outside with my tea in the warm sunlight. A local hen with her chicks came to visit. I felt villanous eating an egg for breakfast. This is a day off here, but Sunday is a regular working day for everyone, including me. So I must finish preparing my lectures today.

I have just returned from the Institute. I wanted to check out the set up in the laboratory so there will be no surprises tomorrow. Everything seems to be in good order. While I was out, I was treated to a tour of the Citadel (overlooking the Institute) by a British preservation specialist who has been working on a master plan for the site. Seeing the structures through his eyes was worth the overall coating of dust I accumulated. The team staying at the house has just grown by one, a photographer. We are having a barbeque for dinner tonight–hard to believe that I am in Iraq.

Terry from Erbil, Iraq

Our chief conservator, Terry Drayman-Weisser, has returned to Iraq. She visited there in May, and wrote as a guest blogger here on Culture Comment. She is the director of conservation and technical research, at the Walters Art Museum, and travels to Iraq to assist with conservation efforts there. She will be guest-blogging again, during her return trip.

Our chief conservator, Terry Drayman-Weisser, has returned to Iraq. She visited there in May, and wrote as a guest blogger here on Culture Comment. She is the director of conservation and technical research, at the Walters Art Museum, and travels to Iraq to assist with conservation efforts there. She will be guest-blogging again, during her return trip.

Arrived in Erbil to discover a new airport — opened, I hear, when Joe Biden visited here — nice. After listening with apprehension over the last few weeks to reports of renewed violence in Iraq, I am surprised by how familiar and comfortable everything feels. One thing I will have to get used to is that it begins to get dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. I am staying again with directors from the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquites and Heritage where I will be teaching this week. There is a fuller house this time — 6 of us — conservators and architects. My hosts have been invited to a fish dinner tonight and have asked if I want to join them. I am too exhausted so instead will turn in early. I think I will easily sleep through the clamorous sounds of a neighborhood celebration — a wedding?