Damage assessment of ferruginous sandstone by X-ray tomography : the 'Virgin Tower' of Zichem (Belgium)

The ferruginous sandstone of the Gothic “Virgin Tower” is suffering from a specific biological deterioration process triggered by perforating activities of mason bees. The damage due to these perforations causes extensive loss of material, so that a durable conservation of such degraded stone blocks becomes questionable. In order to evaluate the conservation possibilities of stone blocks damaged by perforating mason bees, an investigation of the internal structure by means of X-ray tomography was carried out. This investigation revealed that the cumulative effect of the digging work by multipl... Mehr ...

Verfasser: De Clerq, Hilde
Hayen, Roald
Cnudde, Veerle
Boone, Matthieu
Dusar, Michiel
Dokumenttyp: conference
Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
Schlagwörter: History and Archaeology / Diestian ferruginous sandstone / X-ray tomography / mason bees
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26601941
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/5865749

The ferruginous sandstone of the Gothic “Virgin Tower” is suffering from a specific biological deterioration process triggered by perforating activities of mason bees. The damage due to these perforations causes extensive loss of material, so that a durable conservation of such degraded stone blocks becomes questionable. In order to evaluate the conservation possibilities of stone blocks damaged by perforating mason bees, an investigation of the internal structure by means of X-ray tomography was carried out. This investigation revealed that the cumulative effect of the digging work by multiple generations of mason bees may result in networks of perforations. Bioturbated sandstones were found to be most suitable for attack by mason bees because of morphological and geometrical compatibility between the original layered burrowings by marine organisms and those by the mason bees. As a conclusion, the conservation is not recommended of sandstone blocks for which the load bearing capacity is endangered by the branched and layered perforations.