Pam Lewiston asked:
 
> >An associate recovered a number of bottles from a water-saturated trench
> recently and brought them to the lab for me to clean. Some of these bottles
> have partial paper labels on the exterior and I am at a loss as to how to
> clean these bottles without destroying the paper. I fear that if I wait for
> the mud on them to dry, the paper will dissolve upon brushing, even lightly.
> Suggestions?
> >
> >Many thanks in advance;
>
 
I was recently given a paper-label bottle that was excavated from a
privy.  The excavator did not try to clean it, and sealed it in the
usual plasic zip-loc bag to attempt to retain the moisture so that I
could clean it.  Despite his efforts, the bottle (and label) was
quite dry by the time I received it.  I took an artist's spatula
(used for mixing oil paints) and gently scraped off a millimeter or
so of dried soil at a time.  Although the method was *very*
time-consuming, it was quite effective and revealed the label almost
in its entirety.  I would suggest (as I did) to try a small portion
of the label first--I have also had labels that were so fragile that
even the use of a fine-haired artist's brush removed label as well as
soil.
 
I also found an interesting situation regarding paper labels a few
years ago.  We excavated a bottle pit in San Elizario, Texas, that
consisted almost entirely of broken beer bottles, some with remnants
of labels.  Although all the paper had completely decomposed, much of
the ink still adhered to the glass, and the labels were identifiable
(early Anheuser Busch).  As you might expect, the remaining ink was
quite fragile, and very light, careful brushing was required.  I
photographed the labels at several stages in the cleaning, as
deterioration during the process was inevitable.
 
Bill
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(505) 439-3732