ITP Conference Grant 2025 report

Written by Claire Messenger, Manager, International Training Programme

In April we were delighted to award an ITP Conference Grant 2025 to Ioan Oprea, Conservator, National Museum of the Union Alba Iulia (Romania, ITP 2019).

Ioan used his grant to attend and present at the conference Archaeology of the Bone Objects in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, the Black Sea area and the Balkans during the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine periods at Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey from 14 & 15 May 2025.

As well as talking a full and enthusiastic part in the conference, Ioan was able to present a chapter from his PhD thesis about raw animal materials from the ancient city of Apulum titled ‘Conservation of organic artefacts from the collection of the National Museum of Alba Iulia with a special case study of the Roman center – Apulum – and its biggest bone and horn collection from Dacia’,

Ioan says attending the conference has supported his work as a conservator and his PhD research area.  He believes that sharing his work – and learning from others – has ensured that this special category of artifacts have their life and impact preserved through modern conservation methods.  The conference has also enable him to create a new and dynamic network of colleagues working across this field that he will remain in contact with.

We are delighted to be able to support Ioan this year and in his lovely report you can learn more about his conference experience.

Read Ioan’s report HERE.