• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.525-538
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• 2018

Myazedi Quadrilingual Stone Inscription of Myanmar, inscribed to the World Heritage List in 2015, is a rare historical artifact which has an exact date of inscription. It is a written record that displays the history, religion, and culture of Myanmar. Since the surface of the Stone Inscription has been rubbed with ink many times during the process of making printed copies for interpretation and academic research, it has developed a serious stain problem. Therefore, scientific analysis of the stain and research on the treatment for its removal have been conducted. In particular, an experiment was conducted on stain removal using laser cleaning and chemical treatment. The stains are mostly ink dirt, which accumulated from previous ink-rubbing processes. In order to conduct the experiment under similar conditions, a sample with similar stain has been reproduced, and a set of different conditions for treatment was applied to the sample to determine an effective solution. Laser cleaning was found to be effective in removing stains from most samples. However, chemical treatment showed different results. The physical friction method using ethanol provided the best result. In conclusion, laser cleaning is an effective universally-applicable technique but chemical treatment with laser cleaning can be considered an alternative method in certain situations.