CORROSION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL BRONZES FROM SAROUQ AL-HADID AND AL-QUSAIS (DUBAI, UAE)

This paper provides a comparative overview of the state of conservation of metal artifacts from two sites with long occupations in Dubai, namely Sarouq Al-Hadid and Al-Qusais. In particular, the aim is to comprehen-sively understand the corrosion behaviour of bronze objects in connection with their burial environment. Both sites present different soil types and rates of corrosivity, which was determined to have a significant impact, as demonstrated by the compositional analyses of both the archaeological context and the artifacts. Archaeo-metric methods used to reach conclusions on surface morphologies and corrosion layer formation were optical microscopy combined with X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, in addition to ICP spectroscopy. Results indi-cate a connection between soil composition and corrosion dynamic, pointing to the need for tailored ap-proaches to restoration and conservation.