Risk Management of Archaeo-Palaeontological Collection from Sierra de Atapuerca Sites at CENIEH

Abstract

The National Research Centre on Human Evolution (CENIEH) hosts a palaeontological collection from Plio-Pleistocene sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos), declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. The aim of the Conservation & Restoration Laboratory of CENIEH is to assure the conservation collection in time, in order to arrest or minimize handling and preserve its high scientific and cultural wholeness. In this manner it becomes a priority to establish specific preventive conservation strategies. Thus, to achieve these goals it is necessary to review and update the CENIEH Plan for Preventive Conservation by developing every stage: documentation, context, risk assessment, proceedings design and verification. Summarizing the efforts of risk management must be focused on making scientific use compatible with conservation criteria.