Category: Art Conservation
Student Blog: Around the World Through Objects Conservation
October 28, 2025 Written by Leah Palmer | Photo by: Dorothy Cheng
This summer, I completed an eight-week internship in archaeological conservation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Gordion Project, located in the village of Yassıhöyük, Ankara, Türkiye. Archaeological artifacts fascinated me as a child. I was struck by the connection I felt to the ancient makers behind each artifact. This fascination drew me to the field of conservation, but as I’ve developed professionally, I’ve grown to understand the dark past behind the archaeological items that inspired such awe. To further develop my own conservation ethic surrounding archaeological objects, I decided to spend this summer working at the Gordion archaeological site alongside Turkish archaeologists and interning under conservator Jessica Johnson, who has worked in community capacity building in the Middle East. My goal for the summer was to develop my ethic of care for archaeological artifacts through close interaction with internationally renowned archaeological conservators, researchers and historians.
Gordion, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the capital city of Phrygia more than 3,000 years ago and the site of the tomb of the fabled King Midas. In 1957, Penn archaeologists discovered the tomb that King Midas built for his father, a structure that is now the oldest standing wooden building in the world. Since then, Penn archaeologists have developed a collaborative partnership with Turkish professionals to excavate Gordion, uncovering dazzling examples of ancient material culture, such as the first decorated stone mosaic ever found.
The on-site conservation lab, run by Jessica Johnson and Cricket Harbeck, provides support to the Gordion Museum’s collections as well as freshly uncovered artifacts from the archaeological dig itself. The conservators assist researchers, maintain a large pebble mosaic and treat a high volume of archaeological artifacts. As an intern at the Gordion site, I treated more than 100 objects, including pottery, copper alloys, iron, alabaster, unbaked clay, glass and stone objects — as well as the world-famous Gordion pebble mosaic.
I spent one month working with intern Amber Swanson and Jessica Johnson on the Megaron 2 pebble mosaic, excavated at the dig site in the 1950s and partially relocated to the Gordion Museum in the 1980s. This is the first full-scale stabilization of each of the 33 mosaic panels since its relocation. We were able to dry-clean each mosaic panel and re-adhere loose pebbles using grout (a mixture of acrylic resins and sieved sand) to set them in place. While completing the project, I reviewed archival information about the mosaic’s treatment history to create a detailed outline of previous treatments to facilitate future conservation efforts.
Through this experience, I saw that healthy decision-making for archaeological objects must start and end with the people whose heritage is being excavated. I was able to participate in decision-making conversations with representatives from the Turkish Ministry of Culture, learning what their priorities were. I also learned that caring for archaeological collections means caring for the researchers who will be interpreting them. Before treating artifacts, I had sit-down conversations with the specialists who would be studying them, learning what extent of cleaning or reconstruction would be helpful for their research.
I am now far, far away from the rural village of Yassıhöyük: for my third-year fellowship, I am based at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., at its Lunder Conservation Center. The Lunder Center is world-renowned for its visible conservation labs and for its dedication to outreach, education and advocacy. While here, I have been able to dive into SAAM’s outreach efforts, including tours of our lab, children’s programming at allied museums and professional development workshops.
My first treatment at SAAM involves two memory jars, vessels popularized in African American communities in the U.S. South that originate in the Congo tradition of grave decoration. The ceramic jars are coated with a clay-like material into which are pressed a wide variety of small items (coins, buttons, rhinestones, shells, etc.), all memorializing a deceased person’s life. These two jars were crafted by unknown artists, honoring unknown individuals. I consulted curatorial intern Alison Printz, who is particularly fascinated by the possibility that these two jugs were made by the same person. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that they are the only two jugs to her knowledge that incorporate peach pits, and they are both painted with similar metallic paint. I will be pursuing X-ray fluorescence, X-radiography and multiband imaging to learn more about both objects’ creation.
My time in Türkiye and at SAAM has continued to reveal the immense capacity objects have to impact people across time and space, and I am excited to continue caring for these remarkable belongings for people in the present and in the future.
— Leah Palmer, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, Class of 2026
