There is very little published information about the conservation of paper found on archaeology sites. Paper, especially paper mass-produced from wood pulp in the 19th and 20th century, is unstable even at ambient conditions. Survival during burial is very rare. In the December 1994 issue of the IIC-Canadian Group Bulletin (Vol. 19, No. 4, pp.22-23), Sandi Sauer published a short article describing the treatment of newspaper found in on two sites: the O'Keefe Ranch and Bakerville, British Columbia. She was able to clean and separate the sheets with water, using Saran Wrap to support the sheets. The paper was dried between blotters, however she mentioned that if she were to do it again, she would sandwich the paper between two sheets of Remay or Hollytex, which are unwoven polyester fabrics used by conservators to support paper and other fragile artifacts during washing. They allow liquids to pass through, and will keep paper from sticking to blotters during drying. A weight such as a glass sheet over the blotters will keep the paper from curling. And yes, it is OK to wash paper if it is in reasonably good condition. The trick is to get the technique right, use clean, filtered water ( a Britta filter is fine) and do not even contemplate using chemicals, detergents, etc. If you were to find paper, and it survived excavation, your best bet would be to find a paper conservator for advice. The main difficulties are evaluating its condition, and the length of time involved in cleaning and separating pages - Sandi mentioned that "if you don't have a steady hand and unlimited patience, get someone else to deal with your fragile artifacts." The good preservation of printing on charred paper that Daniel Weiskotten mentioned is due to the fact that the ink was probably carbon black, and wouldn't be damaged by fire. If you found charred documents that your really want to keep, there is a technique that can preserve them - coating with Parylene, a polymer that is deposited on the paper in a vacuum chamber, from a vapour, not a solution. This requires specialized equipment and experience in carrying out the treatment, but it is very effective in preserving extremely fragile material. At the Canadian Conservation Institute, we have done extensive testing on the application of Parylene to various substrates. It is a controversial treatment in conservation, but certainly has its uses. We have worked on forsenic cases with the RCMP and Transportation Saftey Board to preserve charred documents. There are facilities in the US that can do Parylene coating. If you had a situation that you think warranted such a treatment, please contact me off-line and I can supply the information. Regards, Judy Logan Senior Conservator, Archaeology Conservation Processes and Materials Research Canadian Conservation Institute 1030 Innes Road Ottawa, ON K1A 0M5 tel: 613 998-3721 fax: 613 998-4721 e-mail: [log in to unmask]