Profile: Pieta Greaves
There is still lots to be discovered about the Staffordshire Hoard, says its conservation manager
Pieta Greaves, a former archaeologist, is the conservation manager of the Staffordshire Hoard, the mind-boggling collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver that was unearthed near Lichfield in 2009. It is now on permanent display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
How’s the hoard looking now compared with when you first saw it?
I came in halfway through the conservation process and much of the material was still covered in soil. Once that was removed, it was fascinating to see how some pieces could be joined together to make larger items; there were some 4,000 fragments altogether but, in reality, only about 400 individual objects.
It was like a big, dirty, very valuable jigsaw. We’ve been cleaning objects and making them stable; even if things are unidentifiable, at least we now know we have them. Ongoing research is a strong theme in the gallery alongside showing off the star pieces.
Describe some of your more unusual cleaning techniques.
Gold scratches easily and our metal tools could have caused untold damage. Someone from the conservation team remembered that thorns were used to play gramophone records so we tested a few and found the berberis shrub was perfect for what we wanted to do. There’s a fine conservator tradition of finding alternative tools when necessary.
What made you swap archaeological work for conservation?
I came here from New Zealand and, for a start, it’s a lot warmer working indoors. In archaeology, you quickly find out that, unless you work on research digs, you’ll rarely actually find anything. As a conservator, people only call you in when they’ve found something really good.
The two roles could work more closely together. Some in archaeological circles think that conservation is expensive and only something you do if you really must. I once saw a conservator insist – against archaeological advice – that he could block-lift a single pot from 20 found in a field. He went ahead and the pot disintegrated; the archaeologists lifted the rest quite finely in one go.
Any other memorable field trips?
The locals in Lewisvale, East Lothian, burned down their cricket pavilion and wanted to build a new one. Below the area they chose, two Roman altars and the corner of a building were discovered.
All the major finds I’ve worked on have been discovered by pure chance. But I do remember standing in the wind and rain and remembering just why I chose not to be an archaeologist anymore.
How’s the hoard looking now compared with when you first saw it?
I came in halfway through the conservation process and much of the material was still covered in soil. Once that was removed, it was fascinating to see how some pieces could be joined together to make larger items; there were some 4,000 fragments altogether but, in reality, only about 400 individual objects.
It was like a big, dirty, very valuable jigsaw. We’ve been cleaning objects and making them stable; even if things are unidentifiable, at least we now know we have them. Ongoing research is a strong theme in the gallery alongside showing off the star pieces.
Describe some of your more unusual cleaning techniques.
Gold scratches easily and our metal tools could have caused untold damage. Someone from the conservation team remembered that thorns were used to play gramophone records so we tested a few and found the berberis shrub was perfect for what we wanted to do. There’s a fine conservator tradition of finding alternative tools when necessary.
What made you swap archaeological work for conservation?
I came here from New Zealand and, for a start, it’s a lot warmer working indoors. In archaeology, you quickly find out that, unless you work on research digs, you’ll rarely actually find anything. As a conservator, people only call you in when they’ve found something really good.
The two roles could work more closely together. Some in archaeological circles think that conservation is expensive and only something you do if you really must. I once saw a conservator insist – against archaeological advice – that he could block-lift a single pot from 20 found in a field. He went ahead and the pot disintegrated; the archaeologists lifted the rest quite finely in one go.
Any other memorable field trips?
The locals in Lewisvale, East Lothian, burned down their cricket pavilion and wanted to build a new one. Below the area they chose, two Roman altars and the corner of a building were discovered.
All the major finds I’ve worked on have been discovered by pure chance. But I do remember standing in the wind and rain and remembering just why I chose not to be an archaeologist anymore.