Stone palettes are a unique artifact of Hohokam culture. Discovery of lead minerals on these palettes dates back to the 1930s, however there has been little chemical analysis of these minerals. This research presents the result of a multi-analytical survey on the accretions of nearly 200 palettes to develop a better understanding of occurrence of lead minerals and isotopic characterization to address questions of sourcing, procurement and mineral exchange. We found consistent association of lead minerals regardless of context, region, and time period, suggesting lead minerals are related to a primary use of palettes. We also propose an alternate theory to one potential function of palettes - that they were used to prepare paint applied to the body or other materials that did not survive in the archaeological record. We propose that the lead silicate identified on some palettes is not intentionally formed, but rather due to post depositional processes. Las paletas de piedra son un artefacto & uacute;nico de la cultura Hohokam. Desde 1930 se sabe que estas paletas contienen dep & oacute;sitos de minerales de plomo, pero desde entonces han habido pocos an & aacute;lisis qu & iacute;micos de estos minerales. La investigaci & oacute;n aqu & iacute; presentada discute el resultado de un estudio multi-anal & iacute;tico de los dep & oacute;sitos minerales de un grupo de casi 200 paletas, la mayor parte proveniente de la colecci & oacute;n de ASM, con el objetivo de desarrollar una mejor comprensi & oacute;n de estos minerales, y caracterizar su composici & oacute;n isot & oacute;pica para discutir cuestiones de abastecimiento, adquisici & oacute;n e intercambio de minerales. Encontramos una relaci & oacute;n entre las paletas y los minerales de plomo que no depende de contexto, regi & oacute;n o per & iacute;odo de tiempo, lo que sugiere que estos minerales est & aacute;n relacionados al uso principal de paletas. Tambi & eacute;n proponemos aqu & iacute; una teor & iacute;a alternativa sobre la funci & oacute;n de las paletas: que fueron utilizadas para preparar una pintura que fue aplicada al cuerpo u otros materiales que no sobrevivieron en el registro arqueol & oacute;gico. Proponemos que el silicato de plomo que fue identificado en algunas paletas no fue formado intencionalmente, sino que se debe a procesos asociados a la deposici & oacute;n.

The issue of pesticide-contaminated archaeological collections has generated concern among staff in collecting institutions. Pesticides have long been used, but the awareness of their unseen persistence and their potential as a human health hazard is a new aspect of preventive conservation. Background information and guidelines for developing a pesticide history are provided for repositories, museums, cultural resource management companies in the private and public sectors, academia, and other public collections.

The Arizona State Museum has more than 30,000 archaeological perishable artifacts. A large scale inventory of this collection led to an analytical survey to identify the indigenous adhesives that are present in these objects. Adhesive samples from 64 objects that covered 31 different archaeological sites and encompassed every major cultural tradition in Arizona were analyzed with attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The study found that Pinaceae exudates and insect lac were the primary adhesive materials. Insect lac was the predominant adhesive used by the Hohokam, and both pine resin and insect lac were found in artifacts from the Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo. Because insect lac is produced by insects (Tachardiella spp.) endemic to the desert lowlands, this indicates exchange of insect lac throughout the cultural regions of Arizona. This study illustrates the value of addressing a collection as a whole to increase understanding of prehistoric material culture and fabrication technology.

Epoxies are commonly used in art conservation as adhesives for artifact reconstruction and repair. However, with the development of colorless epoxies, it has become more difficult to detect repair work. Fluorescent epoxies would allow for easy detection of the epoxy joints by simple visual inspection under UV light while remaining unnoticeable under normal display lighting. Coumarins are natural dyes that can be added in very small amounts to make thermosets fluoresce. Depending on the functionality of the coumarin used, the dye may be physically encapsulated in the cross-linked polymer or it may be bound to the polymer through covalent bonds. In this paper, we examine the efficacy of coumarin (1) and coumarin 480 (2) as physically encapsulated dyes and 7-hydroxycoumarin (3) and 7-glycidyloxycoumarin (4) as covalently bound dyes in a commercial epoxy thermoset, Epo-Tek 301. All four dyes could be used to make the epoxy fluorescent, but coumarins 1 and 2 slightly reduced the lap shear strength of the thermoset and could be extracted with solvent. In contrast, coumarins 3 and 4 had little effect on the mechanical properties of the epoxy and only minute amounts could be extracted.

On Nov. 29, 1985, a Willem de Kooning painting, Woman-Ochre, was stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art. Decades later, on August 3, 2017, a routine Thursday afternoon at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, staffers were preparing for next season's exhibitions when the phone rang. Arrangements for its quick return to Tucson from Silver City, New Mexico followed. The painting was unpacked and examined the following Wednesday. The nature of the theft, the discovery, the return, and the preliminary examination for authentication provide an interesting story that highlights the importance of a conservator. Click on Video link on the right to view presentation.

The ethics and deontology of the conservation-restoration of human remains in the United States is explored in this article.Most indigenous people venerate human remains.When considering care, treatment, storage, display, or research there are typically ideological intensions and ethics, cultural traditions of appropriateness, and legal regulations that must be considered.Conservators need to be responsive to legislative changes and to calls from descendant communities.Conservation has moved away from treatment to a responsive and collaborative role in research, analysis, or repatriation.This paper gives an introduction to propriety and impropriety of conservation related to NAGPRA.

Publications by nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie provide important insight into the surprisingly vast range of natural products and recipes used in the field and laboratory to preserve excavated ceramics. The materials used by these professionals, who were responsible for developing the field of scientifically-based archaeology, are contrasted with those used in the contemporaneous ‘menders’ trade. A survey of the available literature, dating 1880-1930, demonstrates that a wide selection of adhesives, consolidants, solvents, acids, and tools was recommended for treating ceramics during this period. A summary of recommended materials and methods for the preservation of ceramics—in particular those recovered from archaeological contexts—is presented in illustrated charts. These provide a comprehensive summary of materials that may remain extant on ceramic collections that underwent treatment during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This paper advocates for greater attentiveness on the part of the conservator today when examining older collections and considering the retreatment of ceramics collected during this period, as they may encounter residues of these materials.

Advances in conservation employed at the Arizona State Museum have expanded the research options for over 35,000 ethnographic and archaeological perishable objects since 2012. The Woven Wonders basketry conservation project has provided increased access to the collection, instituted new conservation treatment technique, initiated new research topics, provided advanced educational opportunities, instigated new forms of collaborative conservation, and reduced material loss from items in the collection. The Woven Wonders project was funded with a Save America's Treasure grant, two Institute of Museum and Library Services grants, one Preservation Training Grant, two Kress Foundation grants, and numerous private donations. The project has resulted in a state-of-the-art visible storage vault with an adjacent interpretive gallery that is home to the Woven Through Time: American Treasures of Native Basketry and Fiber Art.

The o-toluidine test for complex carbohydrates was first developed for the identification of gums, mucilages, and starches using small samples from artifacts. This test as described for the analysis of museum collections was revised by systematically testing reference materials. This paper reports on the color reactions obtained on treating reference materials with the o-toluidine reagent to better understand the resultant color reactions of various gums, mucilages, and starches. The green color reaction commonly reported in the literature was found to be only partially accurate. This test will yield a green color for polysaccharides that yield only aldohexoses upon hydrolysis, such as starches and certain mucilages. Gum exudates and mucilages that are polysaccharides of both aldohexoses and aldopentoses yield a brown color reaction. Also discussed are the classification, sources, and uses of various plant polysaccharides and where this microchemical test was useful in understanding the collections at the Arizona State Museum.