Paper short abstract:

In the laboratory, Italian microbiologists today work to use bacteria to “restore” heritage artifacts, making the sociocultural life of heritage legible and tractable to the natural sciences. How are these microbiologists emerging as the new caretakers of “our past?"

Paper long abstract:

Microbiologists today are applying bacteria to deteriorating artifacts of cultural heritage in order to restore them to their "original" states. I focus on a laboratory in Milan, Italy, where microbes—more widely known as the cause of heritage's degradation—are being transformed into useful biotechnologies that can repair the cracking and darkening surfaces of Italian stone walls and monuments. Invoking the ways microbes can help humans in food production, health promotion, and environmental remediation, these scientists see microbes as "natural," "green," and "sustainable" resources that can also aid humans to protect the tangible legacies of their culture and pass heritage on to future generations. Specifically, these microbiologists harness the metabolic activities of particular kinds of bacteria in order to clean stone heritage of undesirable debris. They also use the minerals that some microbes precipitate in order to consolidate stones and fight against heritage's material disintegration. Analyzing this work, I show not only how heritage is made to shape the value of microbes. Heritage is simultaneously made legible and tractable to the natural sciences such that microbiological techniques and principles constitute the material production of heritage's authenticity. In the laboratory, microbial life becomes entangled with the sociocultural life of heritage, and microbiologists emerge as the new caretakers of "our past."