Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Archaeology - Department of Conservation

Wooden icons represent an essential part of Egyptian cultural heritage and have a major historical and artistic significance. This type of icons is to be found in most churches, monasteries and museums, however, historical, archaeometerical and conservation studies have not been carried out to date. Differences between the wooden icons and the other types of icons are known. The paint layers of the wooden icons are either executed on the wooden panels or on thin gesso layers with the absence of a canvas layer. On the contrary, the other types of icons are applied either on gesso, leather or paper ground layers applied on top of a canvas layer. Deterioration phenomena of wooden icons are also different. The main aims of this thesis are to study the chemical degradation of the wooden icons due to their specific overlapping structure and to set conservation methodologies which are compatible with their chemical and physical status. The adequate conservation of wooden icons requires good knowledge of the chemistry and deterioration mechanism of objects of complex structure. This knowledge can only be acquired through appropriate analyses of the materials used. Among the available analyses, the suitability of the vibrational spectroscopy and ultraviolet visible spectroscopy have not yet received full assessment. This dissertation aims to fill up this gap in Egypt

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