National Occupational Standards in
Archaeological Practice
AE7 Develop and implement remedial conservation procedures for archaeological items
AE7.1 Explore, test and develop conservation procedures to solve specific problems
Performance Required
This will involve:
- Identifying clearly the conservation problems to be solved and agreeing them with all relevant people
- Identifying and reviewing the effectiveness of existing conservation procedures and materials in the specific situation
- Reviewing any relevant sources of information for appropriate solutions and ideas
- Modifying, testing and developing techniques
- Recording data generated by the testing of the conservation procedures and materials accurately in the appropriate format
- Ensuring the information provided to others to support the new procedures is complete and accurate
- Accurately assessing the resources that are required to implement the new procedures
- Carrying out risk assessments for all the materials and procedures involved in the selected conservation procedures, and determining whether the procedures are acceptable on health and safety grounds.
- Comply at all times with the Health and Safety precautions determined by the risk assessments.
Occupational Context
- Relevant people
- Other conservators' members of the archaeological team
- Conservation/materials scientists
- Item specialists
- Health and safety advisors
- Organisational/professional representatives
- Funding/statutory/regulatory bodies
- Sources of information
- Publications / abstracts
- Databases / internet
- Bibliographies / research catalogues and indexes
- Professional expertise / consultation
- Experience or articles / written reports of previous solutions and ideas
- Conservation records
- Suppliers and manufacturers
- Resources
- Human: administrative and technical report as well as professional/ experiential expertise
- Financial resources
- Technical resources: material and equipment
- Risk
- Relating to personnel
- Relating to archaeological items/ artefacts/ sites/ structures/ landscapes
- Relating to the exhaustion, depletion or restriction of resources
- Relating to the capacity, reputation, integrity, culture and professionalism of the discipline
Knowledge Requirements
You need to know and understand how to:
- Apply research methods for developing new techniques, including the use of controls
- Record, interpret and apply the results of the testing
You need to know about:
Conservation
- Conservation problems which require exploration
- The existing conservation procedures and materials that are available to resolve the problems
Information sources
- Networks, directories, authorisation, channels of communication
- The most relevant sources of information
- Ways of accessing resources
The health and safety issues and implications of different conservation procedures, and how to comply with appropriate regulations.
Required Skills
You should demonstrate:
- Observation and Risk Assessment skills
- Data interpretation
- Planning
Evidence Required
You should provide evidence that you can explore, test and develop conservation procedures to solve specific problems
The candidate should be questioned, based upon the documentation provided, to explore how they
- explore, test and develop existing conservation procedures to solve specific problems for items.
Evidence Rules
The candidate should have been developed and implemented a range of remedial conservation
procedures typical to their work area
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Today's date: 31/7/2010
This page last updated:
6/8/2007 11:58
