Dear Julia: I fear that it is unlikely that general guidelines for bone cleaning would be advisable. The physical condition of buried bone is a complicated outcome of taxa, body size, fragmentation, heat treatment, exposure
to surface weathering and the details of the sediment matrix. Archaeological contexts and research practices in different regions mean that some animal bone is cleaned after it has been hand collected or hand sorted from dry screens; in other settings bulk
samples are wet screened with varying pressures of water; in others bone is removed from sandy soils and bagged with little subsequent physical cleaning. Some zooarchaeologists have been driven to use surfactants like detergents and water-softening products
to loosen clay soils from bone. Some specimens have to be mechanically freed from minerals that have precipitated on them. Bone in some very dry contexts may still have adhering soft tissue. Even clean "dry" bone in storage can be moist enough to support mold
growth in some climates, while bone from some arid areas can be split apart from salt crystals that grow on the bone in the months after excavation and cleaning.
Apart from stabilizing collections for storage, cleaning must be planned to meet a particular goal or range of goals: museum display? identification? examination of surface modification? Measurement? Sampling for isotopes
or aDNA? Sampling for plant microfossils?
Lots to think about before getting out the pressure washer! I'm supposing that in Britain, the range of taxa, taphonomic history, and soils might be similar enough to outline a range of best practices. But wider than
that, cleaning protocols deserve articulation of goals, planning for specific conditions, and experimentation. Cleaning methods ought to be recorded systematically since they could have a significant effect on the research that follows.
best,
Kate Moore
Katherine M. Moore, Ph.D.
Practice Professor, Department of Anthropology
Undergraduate Chair
Mainwaring Teaching Specialist
Center for the Analysis of Archaeological MaterialsUniversity of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
Hello All,
Can anyone point me in the direction of any studies done on different methods of bone washing (e.g. different tool types - brushes/sponges or the effects of jet washing) and their effect on bone condition, any pdfs and references welcome. I would also be
interested to see sets of guidelines that different people follow or set down for their findsroom staff to follow.
I am aware of the Historic England guidelines for best practice.
Best wishes,
Julia