Conservation of Archaeological Collections

Abstract

The conservation of archaeological materials should be considered part of any archaeological recovery analysis or storage operation. In the past two decades, conservation has begun to emerge as a profession. With this advent should come an increased awareness on the part of archaeologists that specialized techniques and practices used by conservators can prolong the life and usefulness of irreplaceable data base collections. With a few notable exceptions, professional conservation for collections has been ignored in the past. The result of neglect has been lost or badly damaged artifacts. This situation can and should be rectified.