On Tuesday, I went with Renee Stein, the conservator at the Carlos Museum, to UGA to get an overview of a whale fossil that the geology personnel had excavated from the southern coast of GA. Emory and UGA are teaming up to preserve and treat a 35,000-year-old gray whale mandible. The guys at UGA have "pre-treated" the fossil using water baths to remove salts and other water-soluble material and sediment. At the Carlos, we will test small fragments to make sure that this was successful.
At UGA, they also dried the fossil. We went up and surveyed the object and wrapped it to prepare it for transport to Emory. Legally, Emory cannot transfer it, so we prepared it for them to bring it to us. Once it gets here, we will do further testing and begin to consolidate and put it back together for possible casting and presentation.
Even though this isn't technically "art conservation," but it is an object that is going to be conserved using science. I will post more as I work on this fossil at the museum and I will explain the treatment in chemistry terms if I can.
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This sounds really interesting. Are they planning to preserve the entire whale, or was the mandible the only part in a state worth preserving? How big is a whale's mandible (or a gray whale, for that matter)? Where would they keep it? At Emory or UGA?
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