Graduate student awarded Fellowship

Congratulations to Satish Pandey (2004, Archaeological Science), who has been awarded a 3-year postdoctoral Fellowship from AHRC under the Science and Heritage Programme. The fellowship is based at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. His project involves two sites: St Botolph Church, Hardham, West Sussex and Nagaur Palace, Rajasthan, India, where he will be studying the influence of varying climatic conditions on activation and damage in wall paintings.

He selected these two sites because they have very different geographical locations and environmental conditions, and used very different materials – and yet they exhibit very similar patterns of deterioration.

The wall paintings at St Botolph Church are amongst the oldest in the UK (dating from the 11th century) whereas the wall paintings of Nagaur date from the early to mid 18th century. Both sites have been affected by previous conservation attempts, aggravating the rate of deterioration. This fascinating contrast between English church and Indian palace will certainly be an interesting and challenging project.