Description
The object is a carved limestone slab with small grains and pale beige-grey tonality. The sedimentary buildup of the layers of stone is parallel to the relief design. There are quartz veins throughout the stone but most notably along the proper right edge. The slab is rectangular with a rounded top. The design is carved in a low relief with the negative space left uncarved. The stela has three registers on the front separated by two parallel incised lines with a singular incised line around the perimeter of the design. Each register has a seated man and a woman on the left side with three to four figures lining up to offer gifts on the right side of each register. There are hieroglyphs on the top of each register. The accession number is painted on an isolating layer in red paint on the proper right side towards the bottom of the side of the slab if the object were to be oriented vertically.

The verso of the object has no design with visible chisel marks throughout. The veins are more pronounced through a slight protrusion. Another red accession number, “37.146L,” is painted on the back in red directly onto the stone.

Condition:
The object is in fair and stable condition and appears to be in the same condition from the 1992 report. The stone shows evidence of previous spalling and delamination due to the presence of salts (see Documentation/Testing), however it appears to be stable at this time. The surface of the stone has an overall pitting effect. There are significant losses to the front surface due to previous spalling particularly along the top of the stela and extending onto the surface design and causing a loss in the hieroglyphics, the head of the seated man, a portion of the top of the head of the woman on the far left, and the entire head of the young boy on the far right. The previous spalling is also quite visible along the bottom front edge particularly in the two corners. Consolidation and fills from a treatment in 1992 are visible and currently stable (see previous treatment). There are smaller chips along the front edges. There there is also a large gouge on the top of the front of the stela within the spalling area.

On the top register there is a chip on the face of the second figure from the right, and there is a long spalling loss that extends from the hip on the woman on the far left through the rear of the seated man on the left. There is a chip on the carved vessels to the left of the third figure from the right, and there are two holes that may be from a drill on the shoulder of the seated man on the left and above the hand of the woman behind him. There is a black accretion on and nearby the vessel held in the left hand by the third figure from the right.

In the middle register there is a large chisel gouge between the two figures closest to the right. There is a reddish colored stain that has the appearance of iron oxide on the left side within the spalling layers and on top of the surface nearby. The stone that is stained the red color is particularly powdery and a large section of the area has a springing motion when lightly touched with a bamboo wooden skewer, which was not noted in previous reports, but is likely not new, since there was mention that the reddish colored areas were powdery. There is a scratch or abrasion mark of parallel lines on the proper left side near the chisel gouge that extends through the entire height of the register.

On the bottom register, a significant section of the proper left and right corners are gone, and the feet of the seated figures are missing. A piece of the stone in this area and the chair of the seated woman have been reattached and a consolidant is used along its bottom edge (see previous treatment). There are two large boring holes (possibly from a drill) and associated surface loss in between the legs and on the kilt of the third figure from the right. There are some small chips on the left arm and wrist of the seated man. Along the knees of the second figure to the left there is a black spotty stain.

The bottom edge has a rough texture that may be a result of damage from previous salt efflorescence. On the top and bottom edge there is a dark black/brown stain particularly on the areas that are most proud of the surface. These stains could possibly be from a previous mount as noted in the 1992 report.  

There is no previous documentation recorded for the back of the object. The undecorated back of the stela has circular indentations with crumbled stone consolidated inside on the center and top facing left. There are two channels cut into the bottom left facing corner that extend slightly towards the center of surface. The stone has an overall glossy plastic look likely from the PVA coating in the 1938 treatment. There is a very large chip alongside the vein on the right side. Along the top of the chip is an iron-oxide-colored staining. There are actively flaking areas and three areas of loss in the bottom half towards the left side. The losses could be a result of salts in the stone and the impermeability of the consolidant coating the surface, as the losses reveal a bright white stone layer beneath and the width of the loss shares the same tonality of the coated stone. Under ultraviolet examination (see Documentation/Testing), the flaking areas that expose the white stone are highly absorbent, which suggests that the coating may not penetrate too deeply into the stone. The surface has an overall pebbly surface similar to that seen on the bottom edge. There are areas of black staining on proud portions of the stone that possibly rubbed off from another surface. Some small remnants of paper are found adhered to the surface that may have once served as a facing.

When examining the object under a stereomicroscope, small fibers were found throughout the surface of the stone, possibly from the paper boundary underneath the poultice in the 1993 treatment. The surface of the stone appeared relatively stable and consolidated except for the areas noted in the condition diagram.

Historical Context
The object dates from the late Dynasty XVIII, circa 1334-1295 BCE from Saqqara. It is a funerary stela of the man of Penamun and his wife Mutemwiya (TMS Notes). The upper register depicts Penamun, his wife, and one of their sons offering gifts to the god Osiris and the goddess Isis. This register is representative of the realm of the netherworld. The middle register shows Penamun and his wife sitting before a table of offerings from a lector priest, a professional singer in mourning, and one of their daughters. This register represents the realm of the tomb. The bottom register depisters another man and his wife receiving offerings from their children. This register represents the realm of the living (TMS Notes).

Documentation/Testing
Microchemical spot tests:
The object was tested for chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates with Whatman’s filter paper soaked in deionized water on the right of the bottom edge until it was dry (about an hour). The object tested positive for chlorides and negative for nitrates and sulfates. There is little confidence in the results for sulfates since the test result with known gypsum did not yield a positive result even when reducing the reagents, and the particular test has been known to require large quantities of sulfates. It is recommended to retry the sulfate test in the future with new reagents (Odegaard, Carroll, Zimmt, Material Characterization Tests for Objects of Art and Archaeology p. 104, 124,108).

UV on the front:
There is a slight orange tonality overall, possibly an old shellac. There is a dot that fluoreseces bright orange on the middle register on the left underarm of the seated man. On the bottom right edge of the middle register there is a large area of speckled yellow fluorescence. The inpainting on the consolidation on the bottom edge are strongly absorbent.

UV on the back:
There is an overall white/pale blue fluorescence consistent with the fluorescence of modern synthetic resin and is more absorbent towards the edges. The areas where the surface has chipped are very absorbent suggesting that the consolidant may not penetrate deeply into the stone. The paper fragments from a possible facing fluoresce a bright white.

Reduction of PVA coating on the back:
The following methods were tested for the removal or reduction of the thick PVA coating:

• Methanol with a cotton swab: the swab appears to be lifting up coating and when examined in UV it appears to have left behind a coating with an orange fluorescence consistent with that of shellac
• Ethanol with a cotton swab: the swab appears to be lifting up coating and when examined in UV it appears to have left behind a coating with an orange fluorescence consistent with that of shellac
• Isopropanol with a cotton swab: the coating was only slightly dissolved and when examined under UV it fluoresced a milky white color consistent with the PVA
• 9:1 petroleum benzine:ethanol on a cotton swab: the coating did not appear to dissolve and when examined under UV it fluoresced a milky white color consistent with the PVA
• Shell Sol 71 (odorless mineral spirit) on a cotton swab: the coating did not appear to dissolve and when examined under UV it fluoresced a milky white color consistent with the PVA
• Deionized water on a cotton swab: the coating did not appear to dissolve in visible and when examined under UV it fluoresced a milky white color consistent with the PVA with a slight orange tone
• 1:1 deioinized water:ethanol on a cotton swab: appeared to reduce coating somewhat, and when examined in UV it fluoresced a milky white with a slight orange tonality.
• 1:1 deioinized water:ethanol with a cotton poultice (one hour): did not appear to reduce the coating very much in visible light, but there was a slight orange hue when examined under UV.
• Ethanol in a cotton poultice within a mylar chamber (one hour): extremely good results. It appears to have removed all of the coatings, especially when examined under UV as it was very absorbent. The surface was very powdery when examined under a stereomicroscope and prodded with a bamboo skewer.
• Acetone on a cotton swab: appeared to be removing the coating right away and worked much too quickly to control as opposed to  ethanol. When examined under UV it was very absorbent, however, there was some orange tonality visible. The surface was very powdery when examined under a stereomicroscope and prodded with a bamboo skewer.
• 2% pemulen (poly acrylic acid) gel in deionized water with ethanol (1:1) with benzyl alcohol pH7 (applied for 5 minutes then removed): appeared to work very well, however, it left behind a dark gummy residue in areas and the pH may have been a bit too low for the stone. When examined under UV there was an orange fluorescence.
• 2% pemulen gel tr2 with acetone:ethanol (2:1) at pH 8 with TEA (applied for 5 minutes then removed: the results were poor and it was difficult to remove the gel. When examined with UV there was a slight orange hue to the milky white fluorescence.
• Saugwunder suction block (polyvinyl alcohol sponge) soaked with ethanol: this method was very effective but did not have a great adhesion to the entire surface of the stone. It seemed to have removed all of the coatings, especially when examined under UV as it was very absorbent. The surface was very powdery when examined under a stereomicroscope and prodded with a bamboo skewer.
• Ethanol in a cotton poultice on top of RK2 paper (western-made Japanese tissue paper) within a mylar chamber (one hour): extremely good results. It appears to have removed all of the coatings, especially when examined under UV as it was very absorbent. The surface was very powdery when examined under a stereomicroscope and prodded with a bamboo skewer.
• Toluene with cotton swab: appeared to be working right away. When examined under UV it was very absorbent, however, there was a slight orange tonality.
• N-methyl 2 pyrrolidinone: Appeared to be working right away. When examined under UV there was an orange fluorescence.
• Deionized water and ethanol (1:1) in a cotton poultice on top of RK2 paper (western-made Japanese tissue paper) within a mylar chamber (one hour): It appeared to be working right away and when examining under UV it was slightly absorbent with an orange tonality.
• A100: appeared to be working and when examining under UV it was slightly absorbent with an orange tonality.
• 5% Klucel G (hydroxyproprylcellulose) in ethanol for five minutes: worked very well and when examined under UV there was a light orange tonality to the milky white fluorescence. It left behind some residue which had a consolidation effect.
• 5% Klucel G in ethanol for ten minutes: was not as effective as the shorter dwelling time as it made it harder to remove and when examined under UV there was a light orange tonality to the milky white fluorescence. It left behind some residue which had a consolidation effect.
• Benzyl alcohol with cotton swab: appeared to be working well and when examined under UV there was a slight absorbent with an orange tonality.
• Toluene with cotton poultice (1 hour): appeared to be working well and when examined under UV there was a slight absorbent with an orange tonality.
• Er:YAG laser: An attempt to reduce the PVA using an Er:YAG laser was also done (205 us, 10 Hz). The object was first wet with isopropanol, the laser was administered, and then the stone was wiped with isopropanol. The PVA was reduced using this method and the stone absorbed UV radiation in the areas that were tested. It was difficult to determine exactly where the laser had cleaned using this method.
• Er:YAG:  Laser cleaning was performed using a Compact Phoenix™ Laser System, capable of delivering pulse energies of up to 250 mJ, one, two, or three pulses per firing, and repetition rates from 1Hz – 20 Hz, depending on the number of pulses. The erbium yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG ) laser handpiece contains a compact, passively Q-Switched laser emitting at 2940 nm and a laser diode which delivers a red pointing beam. Both the Er:YAG rod and flashlamp are water cooled.

1993:
Chloride tests were completed using acidified silver nitrate with results ranging from positive to strongly positive.

Past Treatment
1938:
A loss on the lower left area was cemented in place with cellulose acetate in acetone. It was immersed in baths of water to remove chlorides. The upper front, sides and reverse were treated with PVA in acetone.

1992:
The surface coating was reduced with ethanol on cotton. Weak areas were consolidated in dilute solution of B-72 in toluene.  Grey paint residues were softened with xylene and removed mechanically. A poultice of attapulgite and xylene on top of wet strength tissue was used to reduce the PVA on the front and sides. The areas of spalling stone weakened from the loss of PVA were re-consolidated using a solution of B-72 in toluene. Some fills on the bottom of the stone were created using B-72 in xylene bulked with glass microballons and paper pulp and toned with acrylics.

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Before and After Treatment Photographs

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Wen-amun Son of Nes-ba-neb-dedet and Ta-sherit-Khonsu

Description
The object is a carved statue made from a beige stone with no visible grain. The rest of the stone has a grey and black speckled pattern, possibly from some type of biological growth. The stone was previously identified as a crystalline limestone, but further testing and examination would be needed for a definitive identification. It is a sculpture of a man striding with his proper left foot stepped forward. The man’s arms are straight down by his sides with his fists clenched and holding cylindrical objects. The man is wearing a carved wrapped kilt and a plinth extends from the base through the opening between his legs and extends as a pillar up his back side. On the pillar there are inscribed hieroglyphics. The accession number is painted in red directly onto the stone on the rear side of the base on the bottom proper right.

Condition
The object is overall in good, stable condition. The head of the figure is missing and the object is broken into three pieces which have been repaired. The top portion appears slightly more saturated than the other pieces, which may suggest the sections of the sculpture existed in different locations for a portion of their history. The lower break extends from the figure’s proper right ankle across the plinth to the proper left knee and across the plinth back around to the proper right ankle. The second break is above and extends most of the way through the back of the pillar and back up to behind the figure’s proper right knee, across the proper right shin and back down to the ankle where it meets the lower break.

The large cracks were filled and toned during the 2016 treatment, however, there are small visible losses along the break edges on the pillar in the areas that were carved with hieroglyphics. Just above the center fragment there is loss on the proper right edge of the pillar, and another closer to the waist of the figure also on the proper right side.

There is a loss on the corner of the proper right side of the pillar closest to where the head of the figure once was. There is a small chip towards the rear edge on the top of the proper left side of the base, and another small one towards the front on the same side. There are two small chips on the proper right side of the base on the side. On the front side of the base there is a chip on the center top edge and the bottom proper left corner is missing. All of these losses were documented in the most recent report.  

There is evidence that the sculpture once had a surface accretion and there are tool marks visible in areas particularly within the recesses in an attempt to remove it. There is a white dusty material visible within the interstices and hieroglyphic carvings that could possibly be from burial.

Historical Context:
It is not known exactly where the object was discovered, but it is believed to have been from Karnak cachette. It was purchased in 1914 by Kidran G. Kelekian in Luxor and then the museum purchased it from him in 1936 (TMS Text Entry). Ancient Egyptian objects are known to have been intentionally damaged along the knees to instill a physical handicap and magically deny the figure the use of their feet (Friedman 1998, 25). It is quite possible that this particular object was intentionally damaged for this reason.

Friedman, Florence D., Georgina Borromeo, and Mimi Leveque. 1998. Gifts of the Nile: ancient Egyptian faience. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Documentation/Testing

UV Examination:
Ultraviolet light examination was carried out with the LED ultraviolet Labino Torchlight UVG3, with 365nm output (midlight >6500µw/cm2 at 15”). There is an orange haze that fluoresces over the entire sculpture, particularly on the back of the pillar. The white powder that is visible in the interstices fluoresces white. The dark spots on the stone highly absorb the ultra violet light. There are some areas that fluoresce white along the break edges that are likely an old adhesive and the inpainting on the fill strongly absorbs the ultra violet light. The old fill on the pillar fluoresces white.

Microchemical Spot Tests:
The surface of the object was tested for chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates using Whatman’s filter paper soaked in deionized water and applied to the bottom of the sculpture.  The paper was left until it was dry (around one hour). The object tested negative for each test. However the results for the sulfate test were inconclusive since the test requires a lot of sulfate to yield a positive result, and there was no reaction even with the reduction of reagents. If there are any sulfates there is not a great enough on the test paper to yield a reaction for this test. It is also possible that salts could be deeper within the matrix of the stone.

Testing was carried out using protocols from Material Characterization Tests for Objects of Art and Archaeology (Odegaard, Carroll, and Zimmt 2000, 104, 124, 108).

Treatment History
Undocumented treatment prior to 1992:
The object was mounted to a stone base with two metal pins and mortar, A small square notch of stone was lost or removed and replaced with plaster on the proper left side of the back of the pillar at mid-height.

1993:
Old joins at the breaks in the legs were reversed and old corroded brass dowels were removed. The object was detached from the base with a jeweler’s saw which cut into the original stone slightly. Iron pins and mortar were drilled out from the bottom of the object.

The pins were replaced with one polyethylene dowel in the proper right leg and adhered with B-72 bulked with fumed silica. The fill in the back pillar was resurfaced with B-72 bulked with glass microballoons and inpainted.

2007:
Loss compensation along the cracks was completed with a mixture of Methocel™ A4M (methocellulose) in 1:1 acetone: ethanol bulked with cellulose pulp, glass microballoons and tinted with dry pigments, and inpainted with Golden acrylics.

Treatment
1. The object’s condition was documented with digital photography and a written report.
2. Dry cleaned with a soft brush and a variable speed vacuum.
3. After discussions with senior Egyptians curator, Dr. Edward Bleiberg, it was decided to make the previous damages and loss compensation more visible, as this object will be included in an exhibition on iconoclasm and the label will discuss ancient intentional damage to this object.
4. Reduced inpainting on fills using acetone on a cotton swab. Ethanol and water (1:1) was also used to swell the paint and some was removed mechanically with a scalpel. The fill material is soluble in water.Used a scalpel, small file, and fine grit sand paper to further reduce the fill so that it is recessed below the surface of the object. Reduced any excess powder from the fill with ethanol and water (1:1).
5. Inpainted with Golden acrylic paints on top of the old fill.

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Before and After Treatment Photographs

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