An approach to the conservation of deeply corroded archaeological silver: the polos from Crucinia

This work presents a case study on the conservation of highly deteriorated archaeological silver objects; the subject is a polos that is, a rich and sophisticated headgear, made of silver laminae, embossed and gilded, belonging to a priestess’ burial from Southern Italy, dated around the 6th century B.C. The conservation treatment was particularly complex due to a unique concomitance of different problems such as the extreme fragility and distortion of the pieces, the lack of comparisons, and the poor context information. Scientific investigations concerned both the conservation-related aspects and the fabrication technique: radiographies allowed location of cracks and areas of deep corrosion, whereas scanning electron microscopy provided information on the corrosion patterns and the gilding technique.