Microclimate monitoring of Ariadne’s house (Pompeii, Italy) for preventive conservation of fresco paintings

Abstract

BackgroundAriadne’s house, located at the city center of ancient Pompeii, is of great archaeological value due to the fresco paintings decorating several rooms. In order to assess the risks for long-term conservation affecting the valuable mural paintings, 26 temperature data-loggers and 26 relative humidity data-loggers were located in four rooms of the house for the monitoring of ambient conditions.ResultsData recorded during 372 days were analyzed by means of graphical descriptive methods and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results revealed an effect of the roof type and number of walls of the room. Excessive temperatures were observed during the summer in rooms covered with transparent roofs, and corrective actions were taken. Moreover, higher humidity values were recorded by sensors on the floor level.ConclusionsThe present work provides guidelines about the type, number, calibration and position of thermohygrometric sensors recommended for the microclimate monitoring of mural paintings in outdoor or semi-confined environments.

Software for Storage and Management of Microclimatic Data for Preventive Conservation of Cultural Heritage

“…These trajectories are novel and useful in preventive conservation of cultural heritage [18]. Mean trajectories is a plot commonly applied in the control of batch chemical processes because it allows an easy identification of deviations with respect to the target trajectory.…”

“…Technological changes and the emergence of faster and cheaper microprocessors have opened the possibility to store and work with larger amounts of data, with higher recording frequencies than a datum per hour [18,19,22,23]. It is possible to take a datum every minute without problem in the current systems of data collection and analysis [15,17].…”

Monitoring Heritage Buildings with Open Source Hardware Sensors: A Case Study of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba

“…On conserving cultural heritage, the application of technology offers useful advantages [20]. It allows the registration of data with a frequency of data per day, per hour, or more [18,21]. Monitoring in higher frequencies (1 datum/min) is interesting because of the greater recording potential of valuable information which leads to greater accuracy for statistical analysis [22].…”

Study of the Effect of the Strategy of Heating on the Mudejar Church of Santa Maria in Ateca (Spain) for Preventive Conservation of the Altarpiece Surroundings

“…For this purpose, the recorded data are analysed by descriptive univariate and multivariate statistical methods [25,26] recently employed in cultural heritage, serving this example as a working methodology for similar cases.…”