Archaeology Laboratory

Above:

Civil War shoulder sling plate from Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee.

Right:

Cast-iron portal piece from former Bollman bridge at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia. The piece was installed in a new exhibit in the Lower Town.

Treatments of once buried objects focus on stabilization and cleaning to reveal markings, enhance appearance, and facilitate identification.

Most of the artifacts treated in this lab are metal. Along with Civil War buttons and buckles, more unusual items treated have included Spanish coins from a 16th-century shipwreck off Padre Island, and 2,000-year-old copper artifacts from the Hopewell culture at Mound City. Some organic materials, but few ceramics, are treated.

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Artifact Conservation »

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