[Nhcoll-l] Advice on conserving mammoth bones

[Adrain, Tiffany S]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on conserving waterlogged mammoth bones as they are excavated. Our university museum is involved in the excavation of at least two mammoths and the bones and tusks are being brought to their lab for safe-keeping, but they don't have a preparator or conservator experienced in dealing with this material. The only advice I have been able to give is to keep the material damp, in plaster jackets where applicable, covered by damp towels to make sure it doesn't dry out and fall apart.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone with experience of conserving and preparing mammoth bones from a muddy excavation site.

Thanks,

Tiffany

Tiffany Adrain
Collections Manager, Paleontology Repository
Instructor, Museum Studies
Department of Geoscience
The University of Iowa
121 Trowbridge Hall
Iowa City, IA 52242

phone: 319 335 1822
fax: 319 335 1821
website: http://geoscience.clas.uiowa.edu/paleo/


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130117/fe78faa9/attachment.html