Research on Conservation State and Preservation Conditions in Unsaturated Archaeological Deposits in Oslo

Abstract

Archaeological, biological, and geochemical investigations of soil sample series from a section and fi ve boreholes have been studied to evaluate the state of preservation at the time of investigation and the preservation conditions of urban archaeological deposits from medieval Oslo, Norway. Focus has been put on the most fragile deposits in the unsaturated and fl uctuation zones. Even with limited investigations, it is possible to assess the archaeological conservation state and the preservation conditions. Further work should focus on interpreting measured results and on mitigation strategies.

The Influence of Soil Moisture, Temperature and Oxygen on the Oxic Decay of Organic Archaeological Deposits

“…; Kenward and Hall ; Reed and Martens ; Loska and Christensson ; Martens et al . ; Sidell ), but so far an important knowledge gap exists with regard to the sensitivity of organic‐rich archaeological layers to changes in the soil environment on a quantitative scale.…”

Suspended preservation: Particular preservation conditions within the Must Farm – Flag Fen Bronze Age landscape

“…Such conditions are not unique and have been identified elsewhere, as in Bryggen (Bergen) and Oslo (Matthiesen et al, 2008;Martens et al, 2012). The challenge now is to increase our understanding of such deposits, and to accept that their sustainable management and effective monitoring will require new models from those that have been developed for more conventional waterlogged deposits and wetlands.…”

Monitoring as a tool to evaluate preservation possibilities. Results from the CULTCOAST project

“…Environmental monitoring of archaeological deposits has been carried out in Norway for a several decades, the first project in the medieval town of Trondheim started in 1996 (Peacock 2002;Petersén & Bergersen 2012), followed by a site in the medieval town Tønsberg in 1999 (Reed & Martens 2008), and the largest Norwegian urban monitoring project started at the World Heritage Site Bryggen in Bergen in 2000 (Matthiesen 2004;Rytter & Schonhowd 2015). Some monitoring has been performed in Oslo (Martens et al, 2012) and at a few heritage sites outside urban settings (Martens & Bergersen 2015;Martens 2016). These latter started our work on how climate change might impact in situ site heritage protection in the Nordic countries the future, and a concern about already visible impacts on sites.…”