Preservation of in situ artefacts by local heating in earthen pit in archaeology museum in cold winter

The environmental requirements for the appropriate preservation of artefacts are usually inconsistent with those for visitors to archaeology museums. Independently controlling the environments for preservation of artefacts and visitors has proven to be an efficient and energy-saving strategy for archaeology museums displaying funerary relics in pits. However, although such systems, would control well the preservation environment in the summer, but could be inefficient in the winter due to buoyant warm air usually remains in the upper part of the room. In this study, we argue that temperature inversion is the key factor for sustaining a stable local environment in a funerary pit to preserve artefacts. A laboratory room with a total area of 100 m2 was constructed to simulate a large open exhibition hall. An experimental funerary pit with various heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems including: a capillary radiant system, an air curtain system and an air conditioning system for human comfort; was built to determine appropriate environmental control strategy for preserving artefacts in the winter independent of the environment in the museum viewing gallery. A series of environmental control tests were conducted and each strategy was evaluated in terms of environmental stability for relic preservation in the pit and economic efficiency. The air curtain and capillary radiant coupled heating system was shown to be a feasible and energy-efficient strategy for the environment required for preservation of the historical relics.