Archaeological Conservation Using Polymers

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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, includingCT 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 wi