Of course, one might ask why were you digging or why did you feel the need  
to recover the plaster? Assuming you had a research design with architectural  
questions and the plaster contributes to addressing important questions or 
might  address future questions, then conservation assumes a higher priority than 
 simply finding something while addressing a larger issue. In either case, 
once  the decision has been made to remove something from its anaerobic and 
stable  environment, a needs assessment is in order to triage what to do next. I 
should  also think that architectural plaster might play into a public 
interpretive  project down the line. 
 
In 1981, I test excavated a field block of 35 square meters in area to test  
if we could determine something of the appearance of a 18th century Spanish  
cannon battery. None in California survive to this day, but this one was in  
ruins and buried under a 1910-1940s U.S. Army parking lot (now on a Navy base).  
My crew hit directly on top of a crumbled merlon and we recovered large 
samples  of architecture for analysis. We completed analysis of 1200 pieces, 
selected the  samples that would best contribute to answering our question and 
returned the  rest of the material back to the site in 1987. Although we tested in 
several  more areas until 1996, we never had the luck of the first discovery. 
Those  recovreed samples were dried, measured, described, photographed, some 
were  sketeched, then they were wrapped in acid-free paper, and set in heavy 
wood  boxes coated with 2-ply epoxy and lined with acid-free padding. They are 
all in  an underground bunker that is temperature and humidity controlled. We 
bring them  out for exhibition and student analysis on appointment. The key is 
how the  plaster samples might be used in the future.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
 
 
In a message dated 6/19/2008 11:03:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Dear  Mark,

Thank you very much for bringing some very important issues.  
I do intend to keep some of the pieces (especially a column
from a  building that we were very surprised to find still in
existence) but your  point about recording the items then
culling them from the collection is  well taken.  I will
definitely look into this.   

Best,
Rebecca

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu,  19 Jun 2008 12:09:27 -0500
>From: Mark Branstner  <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Re: Conserving plaster  fragments  
>To:  [log in to unmask]
>
>Rebecca,
>
>I think a better  question would be "Why do I want to
conserve/curate 
>these items?"  and then, depending on the answer, make a
decision.  If 
>you  can draw it, photograph it, weight it, describe it,
sample it,  
>etc., why would you possibly want to spend several hundred
dollars  of 
>curation space on it or other similar objects? To what  end?
>
>These are real questions ... Not meaning to be  flippant.
>
>Mark
>
>P.S. If its plaster, you just get  it dry, and curation will
take care 
>of itself.
>
>--  
>
>Mark C. Branstner, RPA
>Historic  Archaeologist
>
>Illinois Transportation
>Archaeological  Research Program
>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>209  Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
>23 East Stadium Drive
>Champaign, IL  61820
>
>Phone: 217.244.0892
>Fax: 217.244.7458
>Cell:  517.927.4556
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>"I hope  there's pudding" - Luna Lovegood  (HP5)
---------------------------
Rebecca S. Graff
PhD  Candidate
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
1126 East  59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
[log in to unmask]





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