X-radiography of metals may seem to be over the top for your basic iron blob, but in reality it is a very affordable identification technique, and its use could potentially save CRM firms money while retaining the information that the iron objects have to offer.  I recently asked a conservator who does x-radiography to compare the price of x-raying a box of iron to the one-time box fee in Maryland ($350).  The bottom line was that it would be cheaper to x-ray and discard that box of iron than to pay the box fee (and I know that many states are even more expesive, so the cost savings increase  the higher the state box fee is).  
   
  The best part about this is the added advantage of not throwing away all of the information that those blobs hold.  An x-ray of a blob might well reveal only nails, but from that image, you can usually tell if it's a wire, wrought, or cut nail and you can take measurements.  If you curate the materials without conservation, they'll deteriorate and the information will be lost.  If you automatically discard them, obviously the information is lost.  X-radiography should be seen as an affordable form of mitigation for that information loss, and the x-rays themselves another part of the photodocumentation of a site.  If we as archaeologists are open to such techniques, we may find that these studies are not as over-the-top as we thought.
   
  If anyone is interested in the x-radiography cost-effectiveness study that I mentioned, Howard Wellman presented it at the Middle-Atlantic archaeology conference this year, and if you contact me off-list I can ask him to share it with you.
   
   
  Sara Rivers Cofield
  Curator of Federal Collections
  Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory

"Tanya A. Faberson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  I think what some of us forget in this discussion is that most of us don't
have the time nor the budgets to conserve rusty "blobs ." Can you imagine
having to budget for this in CRM? And over all, what are the chances that
the rusty blobs are weapons and not corroded nails, cans, etc., at least for
those of who work on terrestrial sites? My policy has always been to
curate/save items if there's any doubt about it being unidentifiable (i.e.,
flat, thin pieces of cans, unidentifiable rusty nail fragments, etc.). At
least in Kentucky and Tennessee, many of the nails we recover look like
"fried shrimp" and are difficult to identify anyway. Should we approach our
clients and suggest they pay us more so we can x-ray these items, pour a
liquid inside, and "skillfully crack the outer surface" so we can possibly
find a wire nail mold inside?

Anyway, we likely will never come to a consensus on this, but I think we
need to consider that although most of us would love to have all the time
and money in the world to work on projects and analyze artifacts, most of us
don't. Additionally, we cannot ignore the fact that many curation
facilities are running out of room. Hence, we may have to consider other
options, at least on a project by project basis.

Tanya


Tanya A. Faberson, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.
151 Walton Ave.
Lexington, Kentucky 40508
859-252-4737
[log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ron May
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: curation of hazardous materials


<masses of corroded ferrous blobs...I have no problem discarding), >>


I cringe when reading this sort of statement. I distinctly recall a slide
show at a former SHA Conference in which a blob of rust had been x-rayed and
found to contain a precise mold of a weapon. When drilled, the conservator
poured a liquid inside that set up in a day or so. Then, they skillfully
cracked the rusted outer surface to reveal a precise casting of the weapon
inside. In the ocean, metal converts to oxides that bond with the
surrounding sediments, leaving molds of things like knives, pistols, cannon
balls, and jewelry boxes. Can you imagine discarding one of those rusty
blobs? 

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.


 
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