1. PHANOM WAN: ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY AND RESTORATION PROJECT.
Pongdhan Bandhom, Fine Arts Department Branch 6, Nakorn ratchasima, Thailand.

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Aspects of Consideration for Phanom Wan Restoration Project

1. Authenticity of the monument in materials, position,form and construction techniques must be retained as much as possible. A good restoration must be true to the original conception of the monument so its shape must be respected. Any intervention must be legible and removeable, it must also keep the effect produced by the outline of the monument.

2. Anastylosis is a method for protection of monuments from deterioration factors therefore, if necessary, new techniques can be applied but there must be a measure for protection of side effects from the chosen materials i.e. cement, steel.

3. The aspect of presentation of ruins as mentioned previously is only to enable visitors to perceive the original form and space of the monument on site as much as the original elements indicate, therefore, exaggerated addition is not appropriate. We are not obliged to rebuild a new prang only to support the top, for instance, we can be contented to preserve the finial or lintel in the museum in case that the original positions cannot be correctly proved. [Poshyanandana 1995].

The stage of restoration
The restoration of Prasat Phanom Wan Project is a joint programe between the French and Thai government. The training programe in conservation a stone monument to technicians from the Fine Arts Department and the restoration used lime mortar,gravel,and sand for consolidation of the foundation instead of cement and steel is the pioneer requirment of the project.

1. Surveying and Recording
   This stage is part of the process of the restoration included a site survey to record the present condition of the monument and relevant data accumuration such as historical documents, photographs, and drawing. Moreover, archaeological research or architectural study must be done to provided the database for other stages.

2. Mode of reconstruction analysis
   Technical data under the 1st stage was studied for the analysis of the real form of architectural composition or structural defect and to chose suitable method to conserved. These useful and important for planning the operation, manpower, materials,and budget in each fiscal year. Recording of the area included sites plans, elevations, and cross sections of all buildings were used to determine size, location and function of the temple structures before they collapsed. We also tested for deterioration of stones and how many broken stones were at the building. This helped in the estimation of new materials to use in the reconstruction.

3. Moving and Dismantling
   This stage followed the precise recording of plan, level, and photograph, so that, the erroneous will not occur during the process of reconstruction. During dismantling at the entrance, we found reused stones as element of pediment and some of them were crumbled and immediately broken, all of stones were spread out on ground on top of wooden planks.

4. Improving the foundation
   Lime mortar, sand, and gravel are principle materials used for improving the foundation and filling-in a gaps. The foundations were designed to support a stone wall to solve faultiness of Khmer building's foundation. Mix-mortar was poured layer by layer until it reached the same level as the laterite base which we did not dismantled, and filled compacted sand into space of the foundation, then modified pvc pipes, with sand and gravel, and pvc net were used for the drainage system.[Bandhom 1994:2-4

5. The reconstruction
   A similar project was successfully undertaken at Prasat Phimai several years ago. All staffs of Phanom Wan Project clearly realized that the reconstruction was the most complicated step, espectially at the beginning, because many the reused stone were in bad condition, rotted and because of the small size of the sandstone blocks or reused. Also, wherever there were gaps in the original structure in historic time, bricks were used to fill the gaps.

Much time was spent by staff members discussing the problems of reconstructing. It is important to understand that each measurment must be precise and if the replacements of stones deviates from the original structure even slightly, the entire section of wall must be dismantled, and we would need to begin again.

To avoid any error, the data of each stage was strickly followed and accurate adjustment the doorframe's level and position must be considered. The Project's foreman suddenly demolished all stones layer when he found their positions out of the original vestige.

The junction of block is also very important. We have usually checked a horizontal aside and perfectly fit of each stones at least the 1st three layers of sandstone [Ariyadej 1995:44] so that the stones of the above layers such as the lintel and the pediments could easily been replaced. Often stones were not used and instead brick was place next to the doorframe. This made the restoration even more complicate, thus, we had to estimate the gap between the doorframe and the wall from the plan.

Lots of bricks were used by the original builder. This cause many problems in reassembling the temple structure, after they were demolished still have good condition, they were reset only visible part and mix mortar was poured inside.