Reconstructing the Base
The tiles were cleaned of excess wax and placed face down, one by one, onto graph paper. A photograph of the original layout of the tiles (seen in the left of this photo) helped guide the placement of the tiles for the new layout so that the original arrangement was preserved.

Once all the tiles had been laid in place, adhesive and fiberglass were placed on the backs of the tiles. The tiles were then flipped over, the graph paper removed, and the tiles were ready for resetting on to a new base. Here you can see the topside of the clean and newly-laid tiles, with some of the graph paper still sticking to the surface.

Reconstructing the Tree
The gold foils of the branches and flowers were stabilized and later positioned onto a new stainless steel armature.

In earlier resorations, the two main branches had joined the trunk at right angles, directly opposite each other. Examination of the in-situ excavation photograph made it clear that the branches originally were inserted into the trunk at a slight angle, which would have been more stable, and that the ends would have slid past each other inside the trunk, rather than butting up against one another.

Reconstructing the Body
First, the filler that Woolley had used to fill the body was cleaned out and the interior was thoroughly cleaned with a solvent swab. Then, a facing of acrylic resin, glass microballoons and fiberglass material was applied to the empty "shell".

Blocks of polyethylene foam were carved to fill most of the body cavity. The abdomen was faced with a thin plaque of epoxy putty (that could be easily "popped out," if it were ever necessary to get access to the innards of the "Ram") and then covered with silver sheet, as were the sides of the base.

The new restoration of the "Ram" is almost complete.

Almost there...

The "Ram" seems to walk toward his hind legs in this photograph taken at a late stage in the reassembly.

Stainless steel rods protrude from the gold foil-covered legs, which were filled with a mixture of glass microballoons and reversible acrylic resin. The same mixture filled the head and front legs, and the flowers of the tree.