Artifact Conservation

Director of Conservation Kathleen McCormick cleaning a 14-foot-long rudder from an unidentified shipwreck off Vilano Beach.

The conservation of artifacts is a vital part of any maritime archaeological research program. Artifacts, or human-made objects, submerged in a marine or aquatic environment undergo significant changes as time goes by. When removed from a shipwreck site and exposed to air for the first time in possibly centuries, such artifacts are in danger of rapid deterioration unless they are immediately stabilized and treated by a specialist known as a conservator. Left untreated, an iron object such as a sword blade will soon begin to oxidize and eventually crumble to dust, and a wooden object such as a tool handle will shrink, shrivel, and possibly fall to pieces. This damage can be postponed by keeping the artifact in question wet, but eventually it must be subjected to the proper chemical and/or physical treatment in the laboratory.

The conservator determines the specific treatment for each artifact, which varies according to the material from which the artifact is made. Stone objects, such as ballast or gunflints, often need little more than fresh water soaking and physical cleaning, while iron objects such as cannon and anchors must be subjected to a constant electrical current and chemical bath in a process which might last for five years or more. Conservators also carefully record the objects in their care, through drawing, measurements, and photography, at each stage of treatment. Sometimes exceptionally complex objects, such as a heavily concreted wooden box of flintlock pistols, might be recovered intact by field archaeologists and then "excavated" by conservators in the controlled conditions of the laboratory. Often, chemical or x-ray analyses will reveal secrets that could not be discerned in the field. Because of this, conservators often learn as much or more about a shipwreck from their laboratory work as do archaeologists working on the site itself.

LAMP intern uses an air scribe to carefully remove iron shot from a wooden crate recovered from the 1764 shipwreck Industry.

Since LAMP archaeologists regularly recover artifacts from shipwrecks or other underwater sites in order to learn about the past, we maintain a conservation laboratory overseen by a full-time conservator, Kathleen McCormick. Smaller artifacts can be treated in the laboratory, located within the LAMP headquarters on the St. Augustine Lighthouse grounds. We also have an outdoor conservation facility which is used to treat larger artifacts such as cannon and ship timbers.

Explore the links below to learn more about archaeological conservation and ongoing LAMP conservation projects:

• The right and wrong way to conserve an iron cannon
• Technical Overview: Using sugar to conserve waterlogged wood from archaeological sites
• LAMP Conservation Reports and Artifact Studies (Downloadable!)
• Current Project: Conserving timbers from the Tolomato vessel, a 19th century locally-built working boat
• Current Project: Conserving artifacts recovered from the 1565 well at Menedez' first settlement in St. Augustine
• How you can get involved--volunteer to help save pieces of history
• Browse the definitive online conservation manual at Texas A&M's Nautical Archaeology Program
• Read more about archaeological conservation

Archaeological illustration, such as that of this religious medal, is an important aspect of artifact conservation.

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