Over the years, archaeologists have developed a number of
techniques for conserving historical artifacts for future generations.
Up to now, however, these methods have provided artifacts only a
limited lifespan and in some cases they do not work well with
water-logged materials. Within the past few years, archaeological
chemistry and concerns of longevity testing have become central
issues in the development of conservation treatment strategies.
	
    This problem became particularly acute when members of the
Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program were called on to
conserve artifacts from La Belle, the sunken ship of La Salle
excavated in the 1990s off the coast of Texas by the Texas
Historical Commission. "Entombed in the mud that sealed it from
decay for over three centuries," C. Wayne Smith writes, "the
waterlogged hull and hundreds of thousands of fragile artifacts,
including brain matter in the skull of one unfortunate sailor, would
have been a futile conservation effort without new preservation
technologies."

    Working with Dow Corning Corporation, Texas A&M's
Archaeological Preservation Research Lab, and the Conservation
Research Lab, Smith and his colleagues set out to develop a series
of techniques that would yield successful and affordable treatment
strategies for organic artifacts without sacrificing important
information.

    Smith prescribes an effective layout for day-to-day conservation
of small organic artifacts and then examines some of the
mechanical techniques used to process various organic materials
from marine and land sites. He concludes with an exploration of
new tools and technologies that can help conservators devise more
effective conservation strategies, including CT scans and Computer
Aided Design images and stereolithography.

   All archaeologists, conservators, and museologists working with
perishable artifacts will benefit from the careful explanation of
these new processes, and those wishing to incorporate some or all
of them will find step-by-step instructions for doing so.

   Chapters:
   1.   Laboratory Set-Up
   2.   Baseline Mechanisms
   3.   Archaeological Wood
   4.   Leather Preservation
   5.   Composite Artifacts
   6.   Cordage and Textiles
   7.   Glass Conservation
   8.   Ivory and Bone
   9.   Expanding the Conservation Tool Kit       
_________________________________________________________

C. WAYNE SMITH is an assistant professor in the Nautical
Archaeology Program, an Institute of Nautical Archaeology fellow,
and director of the Archaeological Preservation Research
Laboratory at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.


Number Six: Texas A&M University Anthropology Series


What people are saying about this book

“Smith shares these methods in a fascinating, informative, and 
understandable how-to book accessible to interested laypeople 
yet invaluable to anyone wishing to understand or employ these 
techniques.”—Choice