Sharjah Archaeology Authority organized a seminar titled “The Use of Crystallization of Salts Inhibitors – Sodium Ferrosianid – to Remove Salts from Rocks”, presented remotely, via ZOOM program, by Dr. Yazan Abu Al Hassan, an archaeologist in Sharjah Archaeology Authority.

The speaker presented a system for using one of the crystallization inhibitors “sodium ferrosanide”, which he used in the Jordanian city of Petra, explaining that the mechanism of damage by salts represents a strong and widespread threat to cultural heritage. He also spoke about the impact of a wide range of environmental conditions surrounding complex processes and mechanisms as a result of dynamic interaction Salt with rocks, leading to damage and breakdown.

Searching for new ways to reduce the salt damage of cultural heritage and improving the methods used is an urgent need to protect our cultural heritage. The lecturer mentioned the method of using crystallization inhibitors, which represent a practical assessment to protect the stone from damage and extinction. The speaker said that the best solution to reduce the severity of the salt risk to cultural heritage from loss and extinction is to enter a solution of inhibitors with certain concentrations inside the rocks that contain salts and suffer from damage and destruction because of them, which in turn interacts with the salts and changes their crystalline shape, leading to their exit from within the stone and crystallization on the external surface in a fragile and incoherent way, easy to remove without any effect on the rock itself.
The lecturer mentioned that this procedure can be applied to the stone cultural heritage, which suffers from the same conditions of salt damage.