Part of Norfolk Museums Service
Conserve & Display

Reconstruction of archaeological ceramics

Conservation » Our Work » Case Studies

Reconstruction of a ‘pottery pavement’ and ceramic vessel for the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts exhibition, Cross Roads of Empires; Archaeology in West Africa.

The exhibition team approached us to reconstruct a small section of pavement made from pottery sherds which had been excavated in Benin. The pavement section needed to be robust enough to return to West Africa after the exhibition.

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Pottery pavement in situ
Pottery shards before reconstruction
Completed reconstructed pavement section
Completed pavement section in bespoke storage box

We were also asked to reconstruct a ceramic vessel which, due to its large size, was quite a challenge.

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Fragments of large vessel laid out
Partial reconstruction during conservation
During reconstruction
After reconstruction