Conservation of Artifacts

Artifacts recovered after long immersion in salt or freshwater require conservation treatment if they are to last. On exposure to high concentrations of oxygen in the air, iron artifacts will bloom into piles of rust. Wood will crack and split if dried out improperly. Organic materials will crumble to dust.

The manual below details conservation methods for many types of materials and artifacts.


Black Sea Bass
Black Sea Bass

A fish is defined as a limbless aquatic vertebrate animal with fins and internal gills. There are three living classes of fish:

  • Primitive jawless fishes - class Agnatha
  • Cartilaginous fishes - class Chondrichthyes
  • Bony fishes - class Osteichthyes

These groups, although quite different from one another anatomically, have certain common features related to their common evolutionary origins or to their aquatic way of life. Fish were the earliest vertebrates, and presumably evolved from a group of aquatic lower chordates; the terrestrial vertebrates evolved from fishes.