Treatment And Conservation Of A Marble Plant Decorative Unit In The Form of Acanthus From The Ottoman Era And Preserved in Al-Fustat Museum store

The multiplicity of use of plant decorative units in works of art since the ancient Egyptian civilization until the modern era, the most famous of which is the Acanthus plant, where the multiplicity of use of Acanthus leaves in decoration with some modifications, especially in the Coptic and Islamic eras. One of the decorative plant units for the study was selected from marble stone, which represents the Acanthus plant and dates back to the Ottoman era , it is preserved in Al-Fustat museum store; this unit suffers from heavy dust, dirt in addition to a weak marble and loss in the lower part. Samples of marble were taken for the study, It was examined by a Stereomicroscope and a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and it was found that there are many gaps and cracks spread across the surface of the sample, also analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and the EDAX unit (elemental analysis) attached to the scanning electron microscope to study the mineral components , elements and evaluate the current situation, it was found that calcium carbonate (Calcite) is the main component in addition to the presence of impurities such as: Muscovite and Fraipontite, which are the cause of grey color of marble, based on the results of the examination and analysis, it was found that the marble suffers from damage and weakness , hence the need for treatment and conservation . A treatment plan was put and implemented to preserve the selected plant decorative unit as an important cultural heritage expressing the period of time dating back to the Ottoman era, represented by mechanical cleaning with soft brushes and scalpels, chemical cleaning by a solution consisting of ethyl alcohol and water in a ratio of 3:1 in addition to consolidation processes with Wacker (OH) 100 at 3%.