11th workshop of EAMHMS “New life of old skeletons and papier mache models”. July 4–6 2013 in Tartu

Abstract

Membership in the European Union has given the unique collections gathered during 200 years by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu an opportunity to belong to the European Association of the Museums of History of Medical Sciences, which in its turn has enabled us to cooperate with the most influential and famous medical museums of Europe. When questions arise, it is possible to invite an expert from a cooperation partner, to visit other institutions to gain experience, and being in the role of an expert, to train the specialists of other museums. It is possible to participate in the congresses and conferences arranged by the major European museums, to examine the treasures of their collections. Thus, Tartu has been visited by experts from the Netherlands, Latvia and Lithuania. There have already been ten practical training workshops, and in 2013 the practical teaching of new methods and techniques was entrusted to the Medical Collections of the University of Tartu. The workshop was held from 4–6 July at the AHHAA Science Centre, as the Medical Collections of the Faculty of Medicine are also located in the exhibition space of AHHAA. In addition to experts from different institutes of the University of Tartu, the participants included museum workers from the United Kingdom, India, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Rumania and Ukraine. At the session of theoretical papers, the participants listened to presentations from the history of the Association to chemical analysis of excavated skeletons. In practical workshops, supervised by experts from Tartu, cleaning of pathological models made of papier mache and stopping of their disintegration, cleaning of bones, either ravaged with age or just arrived from excavations, and preparation of the eye were practised. One of the financial supporters of the event was EAMHMS.