Bacterial destruction of wooden cultural heritage Charlotte Björdal 1, Thomas Nilsson 1 and Rene Klaassen 2 1 Faculty of Forestry, Swedish university of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden 2 SHR, Foundation of Timber research, the Netherlands

Wood in historical context

Small bacteria makes great harm

Foundation poles supporting historical buildings Venice

Shipwreck and other archeological remains Roman ship Wooden castle

BACPOLES Preserving cultural heritage by preventing bacterial decay of wood in foundation piles and archaeological sites European Commission (energy, environment and sustainable development the city of tomorrow and cultural heritage) EVK4-CT

Aim and objectives 1.Identify the bacteria responsible for decay 2. Development of methods for protection of cultural heritage

BACPOLES based on Wood sampling Environmental monitoring At: 24 sites in Europe

Outcome of BACPOLES

Identification of bacteria DNA/RNA identification Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacterioides

Bacterial decay in Europe Decay progessing at all 24 sites Bacteria active and alive in both poles and archaeological wood Activity even in very old wood (2500 years) Adapted to environments low in inorganic nutrients

Development of preservation methods 1.Based on bacterial identification, bacteriophages/ virus killers were developed 2.Impregnation/ incapsulation in situ 3.Friendly chemicals

Future work Protection of wooden remains in situ BISKUPIN, Poland

Future work Preservation and protection of wooden foundation supporting historic buildings BRYGGEN, Norge

Acknowledgement The BACPOLES research team members are gratefully acknowledged for fruitful cooperation. The European commission, 5th framework programme, for funding.