Abstract: The consolidation of waterlogged wooden artifacts involves physical, chemical, and biomaterial methods. Physical methods diminish or eliminate surface tension by altering or circumventing the gas-liquid interface. In addition, shrinkage and deformation are caused by internal stress resulting from liquid evaporation in the wood. However, physical methods can only dehydrate wooden artifacts without consolidation and they cannot be used with severely degraded or large wooden artifacts. Chemical methods introduce consolidants to achieve both dehydration and reinforcement by filling wood cell lumens or interacting with cell walls. However, controlling the penetration of consolidants is diffi- cult, and the penetration time can last for several years. In addition, consolidants can degrade over time, which may damage wooden artifacts. Given the high compatibility between biomaterials and wooden artifacts, a greater number of biomaterials have been used recently to consolidate waterlogged wooden artifacts. Yet, factors such as molecular weight, particle size, and solution viscosity of biomass materials hinder their penetration into waterlogged wood artifacts. This area of research remains mostly unexplored, where the current research has focused on new consolidants, with limited studies on the impact of the media used to carry these consolidants on wood. Future studies should attempt to investigate the influence of the media on protective effects, and to estimate the effects of conservation using material chemistry characterization methods.

Key words: waterlogged wooden artifacts, consolidation, conservation material