Archaeological conservation using polymers: practical applications for organic artifact stabilization

Foreword / J. M. Klosowski

Laboratory setup. Major instrumentation

Small necessities in the laboratory

Chemicals

Baseline mechanisms. Dowel experiment

Mass spectrographic analysis of out-gases created from the dehydration of archaeological wood samples

Archaeological wood. The challenge of conserving waterlogged wood

Degradation and shrinkage

Waterlogged wood from saltwater environments

Case study: Waterlogged wooden buttons with and without associated thread

Dry-site artifacts : dry and desiccated wood

Reprocessing and stabilization of PEG-treated wood

Tongue depressor experiment

Case study: Re-treatment of two PEG-treated sabots

Re-treatment of PEG-treated waterlogged wood

Case study: Treatment of waterlogged wood using hydrolyzable, multifunctional alkoxysilane polymers

Leather preservation. Archaeological leather

Cleaning

Chemical cleaning

Treatment of leather

PEG/air-drying treatments

Freeze-drying PEG-treated artifacts

PEG and other polymers

Passivation polymer processes

Case study: A successful treatment strategy for a waterlogged shoe

Passivation polymer treatment for dessicated leather

An effective treatment for dry leather

Suggestions for treating leather between sheets of glass

Storage and display of leather artifacts

Composite artifacts. Case study: Preservation of a composite artifact containing basketry and iron shot

Cordage and textiles. New techniques for the preservation of waterlogged rope

Silicone treatment strategies

Frankfurter method of rope preservation

Treating waterlogged rope in a nonpolar suspension medium

Incorporating the use of nonpolar suspension mediums and elements of the Frankfurter method into "traditional" silicone treatment strategies

Case study: La belle rope

Case study: Preservation of waterlogged canvas from Port Royal

Glass conservation. Devitrification

Removal of sulfide stains from lead crystal

Consolidating waterlogged glass using passivation polymers

An effective silicone oil treatment strategy

Reconstruction

Case study: Preservation of seventeenth-century glass using polymers

Case study: Preserving waterlogged glass and cork

Ivory and bone. Basic structural differences

Equipment setup for very fragile bone and ivory

Case study: Consolidating friable bone

Case study: Ivory from Tantura-B excavations in Israel

Case study: Waterlogged tusks from western Australia

Expanding the conservation tool kit. Computerized tomography and the stereolithographic process

Case study: Scanning an encrusted artifact : CT scanning used as a diagnostic tool

New tools : new directions in research.