Flour could possibly a good medium for mould spores to develop.  While most
of the flour might wash away surely SOME would remain.  I have heard of
people using powdered chalk but that leaves a residue and doesn't wash off
easily. It's a no-no in my book.

Digital photography is one of the best methods I have found and, used with
oblique lighting and Photoshop, is certainly the least invasive.

On a slightly divergent note I used liquid latex moulding to record North
Queensland rainforest dendroglyphs some years ago with considerable success.
It is a method we have since used to replicate some Chinese grave markers.

We tested the trees and the grave markers VERY carefully before applying the
latex to make sure we didn't risk removing any bark or stone in the process.
I have heard of others using latex for rock carving; although there is one
case I heard of where it was not tested first.  The latex took the carving
with it!  Given that, and knowing the soft nature of some gravestones
(particularly sandstone) it would need to be used with EXTREME care.

The advantage with the tree documentation project was that it gave us a
clear copy, showed regrowth at a specific point in time (OK, that is not
really relevant to gravestones, I know) and it also meant we could play with
oblique lighting at will back in the lab rather than in a damp forest miles
from good lighting sources.  Filtered sunlight in a tropical forest is not
really very helpful.

If anyone is interested in this method we did write it up in Australian
Archaeology in 1995: ŒMoulding and Casting Aboriginal Carved Trees of the
Wet Tropics¹ Grimwade G.P.N., K.Mickan, A.Darroch; Australian Archaeology
Journal.No 41, pp15 ­ 21.

Gordon Grimwade


on 9/4/04 11:39 PM, Laura West at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> What kind of bugs, visible and invisible, would that flour draw to the
> surface of the stone? Just a thought.
> 
> Laura West
> 
> M&S Engineering, Ltd.
> 6477 FM 311
> P.O. Box 970
> Spring Branch, Texas 78070
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ewen, Charles [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 7:45 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Safe grave stone rubbing
> 
> 
> My historical archaeology class has recorded a couple of historic cemeteries
> in the area and found that by dusting the surface of a gravestone with flour
> the lettering was much easier to read.  This method had the advantage of
> being effective, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly.  The stones were
> automatically cleaned the next time it rained.  We also took digital photos
> before applying the flour.  Manipulating the images (e.g. adjusting the
> brightness and contrast) in Photoshop was helpful in making the inscriptions
> legible.
> 
> Charles R. Ewen, PhD
> Professor, Department of Anthropology
> Director, Phelps Archaeology Laboratory
> A-215 Brewster Building
> East Carolina University
> Greenville, NC 27858-4353