Archäologie Land unter – erste (Selbst-)Hilfe im Zentraldepot des LDA Sachsen-Anhalt nach dem Sommerhochwasser 2013

Abstract

Archaeology submerged – first aid and self-aid at the central depot of the LDA Sachsen-Anhalt after the summer flood of 2013
The rescue and preservation of archaeological goods is one of the core tasks of the department for archaeological heritage preservation in the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt (LDA). The central depot of the LDA was affected by the flood of June 2013, and thus, the persons in charge stood before a completely new situation. Thousands of archaeological finds stored in the central depot after the completion of excavations were thought to be safe. The unexpected flooding of the basement rooms of approximately 1500 sqm where archaeological find complexes had been stored, made their immediate evacuation impossible. The objects were threatened in several ways; there was the danger of substantial damage in addition to the risk of possibly losing the information of their context. Once the flood had dropped quick recovery and preliminary restoration were implemented. After eighteen months of work, the immediate threat to the objects has been successfully overcome, and a first summary report can be offered. The experience we gained provides approaches for dealing with similar situations in the future, they are presented in this paper. The content and topic of this report deals with the stages of recovery, documentation and treatment of archaeological goods affected by floods. It puts the focus more on the organisation and the technical processes of handling large quantities of material than on restoration concepts and their implementations. How was it possible to quickly recover more than 10,000 soggy packages containing almost all kinds of finds and samples in an orderly fashion? How long can a thoroughly soaked inventory listing be read? How can large quantities of finds be dried at the same time? The search for answers to these questions led to solutions that are also applicable to non disaster-related situations, e.g. when dealing with huge quantities of finds during large-scale excavations.