Boston - LM76 Newsroom

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) has to move articles of antiquity
from one location to another. In this instance, they are moving a 5000 year old relief (hieroglyphics) weighing 8000 pounds to a new location in the Museum. Here is a frontal photo of the Relief from The Tomb of Senenuka.

Part of wall from tomb of Senenuka; nine stones fitting together and including two
niches; lower left piece smooth limestone; upper far left preliminary black ink sketch;
right of this sketch is a complete relief showing two seated figures; central piece has
large scene of seated male on the left and other smaller male figure to the right; upper
far right male figure relief outline; left of this again a scene of two seated figures
at a table.

Senenuka   Time of Khufu or Khafre (Maybe Dyn 5?) Overseer of the Pyramid-town of Khufu, Director of King’s wad-priests, Boundary official of a settlement, etc.

The MFA contracted CBI Consulting of Boston to design the frame and fixturing.
Craig Barnes, an award winning architectural engineer called Mike Quinn of  LM76
to review the application. Over the course of several weeks, LM76 and design
partner Todd Kanipe designed a telescoping, high load roller/rail system
that won approval. According to CBI's Keith Bouchard, the linear rail system moves very smoothly and so far meets the expectations of this program."

According to MFA Antiquity Specialist Jean Louis Lachevere, “All of these moves present very real dangers to the artifact being transported. In this case, we have a 8000 pound relief which already has its problems due to age and the fact that it is limestone ( limestone is very vulnerable to the atmosphere ).” Seen from the front, the relief is straight. From the back, much of the top back is gone. Thus, the back of the relief has to be plastered so the back is flat. Pins are inserted to further reinforce the relief and then it is tipped on its back. It is then moved to its new atmospherically controlled display case. LM76's design is used in the transfer from the dolly to the mounting rails and restraints in the display case. This 36” motion is fraught with things that can go wrong. One of the considerations is the possibility of an earthquake…any problem conceivable is taken into account.