Conservation of archaeological woods

As wood is a biodegradable organic material, it is rarely found in archaeological excavations. It can, however, be preserved if objects have been rapidly buried in moisture-saturated sediments. In these exceptional conditions, close to rivers, ponds, the coast or in marshy areas, wood is protected from oxygen in the air, both from extreme environmental conditions (high temperature, UV, fire, humidification/drying cycles, etc.) and from wood-eating organisms such as insects and fungi.

However, the cellulose in the cell walls that make up wood's porous microstructure can be altered after long periods of burial (several centuries), by the bacterial populations that naturally contaminate the soil, even in anaerobic...