Ok, so ancient bronzes were in the ground for thousands of years, and a lot of them never got corroded.. now all of the sudden we dig a bunch up and we have to use all these things to protect them... why? stainless
the atmosphere look at all the temples in greece the answer is the same we live in a gassed up environment
Spock is partly right. And you've hit upon a major debate in archaeology. Its often better for the artifacts themselves to leave them in situ: the dirt protected them for centuries and will continue to. But if its in the ground, what good is it to us? The short of it is - we dig them up and preserve them because we want them. If we didn't care, they'd still be in the ground.
You're trying to keep the metal in an unnatural state. Prior to being dug up, that item had reached (or approached) equilibrium and so got no worse after a point. Think of it from a chemist's perspective and it becomes clear.
