Dear Naomi,
we do the following: we dry the clayey material in a drying chamber (or
whatever that is called), at around 30 degrees C, for at least 48 hours.
When the material is totally dry, it should dissolve very easy when you
put it into water. We made some "experiments", too, and it does not seem
to influence the carbonised material.
Of course, this is only for material from "dry-sites" (NOT for
waterlogged!)!
Good luck!
Stefanie
Naomi Miller wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> A colleague (not in the list) asks:
>
> "...I had a lot of trouble floating some of the samples manually last
> year due to a high clay content in the soil. You had mentioned and
> other references suggest a deflocculation agent --like sodium
> hexametaphosphate found in dishwasher detergent--added directly to the
> floatation water. It seemed to have helped a bit, but far from
> perfect. Do you know of any other additives that might help dissolve
> the clay for a manual system?"
>
> I am soon to be without e-mail for a few weeks, so if anyone can help,
> it'd be great if you could send a reply to Lynn Makowsky (
> mailto:[log in to unmask] )
>
> thanks in advance.
>
> Naomi.
> -------------------------------------
> Naomi F. Miller
> University of Pennsylvania Museum
> MASCA-Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology
> 33rd and Spruce Streets
> Philadelphia, PA 19104
> --------------------------------------
> tel: (215) 898 4075; FAX: (215) 898-0657
> www: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~nmiller0/
>
>
--
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Jacomet
Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science IPAS
Institut für Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie IPNA
Basel University / Universität Basel
Spalenring 145
CH-4055 Basel
[log in to unmask]
http://pages.unibas.ch/arch/start.html
phone office: 0041 61 201 02 11
mobile: 0041 79 322 39 17
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