Washing Artifacts

What happens when we bring in a site full of artifacts to the lab? Lots of washing! In order to see the details and wealth of information that artifacts provide for us, we must carefully remove all the dirt that has adhered to the artifacts over the years.

The site is historic, and we got a variety of materials. Metal and rusty bits get dry brushing with the toothbrush, and most everything else gets a nice clean rinse of water and light brushing. Bones and shell get a light brushing with a damp brush.