{"id":3908,"date":"2022-10-20T16:40:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.floorsofstone.com\/blog\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2022-10-20T16:42:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:42:47","slug":"3908-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.floorsofstone.com\/blog\/3908-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post I will be exploring how different famous stone landmarks, statues and artefacts are conserved and restored, starting with the Moai found on Easter Island.<\/p>\n

To give a bit of background, although I\u2019m confident most people are already familiar with the statues, The Moai were carved by the Rapa Nui people between the years 1250 & 1500. In total, around 1000 statues are present on the island, originally positioned looking inwards over the rugged terrain of the island. It\u2019s unclear exactly why they were constructed, but, a popular theory amongst archaeologists suggests they were created to symbolise the ancestors of the Polynesian People who looked towards the middle of the island, watching over the inhabitants.<\/p>\n

A large part of the risk facing the monuments comes from human interaction, be it vandalism, wars or botched restoration efforts; such as the non-porous mortar used back in the 1960s. With the Island being, in essence, a large open-air museum, the biggest environmental threat to the Maoi is rain, the stone is relatively soft and therefore is quite easily eroded by harsh sea air and occasional rainfall. Rainwater travels deep into the stone and doesn\u2019t evaporate from the core as quickly as the outer parts of the Maoi, meaning the core stays damp and causes a cycle of heating and cooling around the edge of the core, which in turn leads to a loss of structure within the stone.<\/p>\n

Since rainwater was the most damaging factor for the Moai, conservationists tested a hydrophobic treatment on the Moai and found that the key way to conserving them was to apply the treatment, monitor the effectiveness over time and then reapply the treatment as necessary. (Info from A.E. Charola\u2019s articles \u201cdeath of a moai\u201d <\/em>& \u201cThe Human Factor in the Preservation of the Monumental Heritage of Easter Island\u201d<\/em>)<\/p>\n

These are the same reasons we recommend our Floors of Stone Natural Stone Sealer<\/a> with all natural stone tiles; its hydrophobic nature repels water from the surface, preventing issues caused by heating and cooling as well as helping to reduce staining on the tiles.<\/p>\n