Conservation of Celtic Iron Swords from the Zvonimirovo – Veliko Polje Site

Od 2002. godine u sklopu suradnje Hrvatskog restauratorskog zavoda i Instituta za arheologiju restaurirano je više stotina keramičkih, željeznih i brončanih predmeta s lokaliteta Zvonimirovo - Veliko polje. U članku su prikazani složeni konzervatorsko-resturatorski radovi na dva željezna keltska mača s navedenog lokaliteta. Riječ je o mačevima iz doba latena, 2. st. prije Krista. Konzervatorsko-restauratorski radovi provedeni su u više faza, s namjerom vraćanja identiteta, integriteta, stabilizacije i sprečavanja daljnjeg propadanja tih važnih arheoloških nalaza. Sve metode i zahvati slijede pravila restauratorske struke i etike, a sve faze radova popraćene su opširnom pisanom i fotografskom dokumentacijom.Since 2002, as part of the collaboration between the Croatian Conservation Institute and the Institute of Archaeology, more than a hundred ceramic, iron and bronze artefacts have been restored from the site of Zvonimirovo – Veliko Polje. The cemetery of Zvonimirovo-Veliko Polje (Suhopolje Municipality, Virovitica – Podravina County) is unique and thus far the only systematically researched cemetery from the Late Iron Age (La Tene) period in Croatia. An account of the complex conservation is given in the paper of two Celtic iron swords found at the site. The swords date from the La Tene period i.e., the 2nd century BC. Taking into account the fact that Celts destroyed their weapons by bending them, a conclusion is drawn that the straight sword PN=1062 represents a relatively rare archaeological find, and as such is very interesting. Another, bent sword, PN=1132 testifies to the aforementioned weapon destruction as part of the burial rite. Conservation work was carried out in several phases, aimed at returning the identity and integrity to these important archaeological finds, consolidating them and preventing their further deterioration. All the methods and procedures used followed the code of ethics of the conservation profession. All the materials used are reversible and all the phases were accompanied with extensive written and photo documentation