Why not clean the finds at all costs

There are a large number of finds in the country that bear the remains of organic material or its negatives, preserved in the corrosion products of metals. Alternatively, the archaeological finds are joined together by corrosion products. A great deal of information is lost by cleaning without professional documentation.

At the prompting of a lively discussion, I am adding a short post on the treatment of finds, specifically the treatment of objects on which traces of original deposition have been preserved. And this is whether it is the organic residue on the surface of the finds or the method of deposition itself. The paper is not intended to be a technical article, but a paper with examples of finds, to which interested readers can read more.

I have expressed the opinion that any delaboration and cleaning of archaeological finds should only be done at the hands of experts - conservators/archaeologists. I won't mention the specific post, or rather the discussion below the post, in a nutshell it is a situation where a fabric remnant (or impression) from the time of the říRoman coins has been completely cleaned and this "information", this extraordinary find, has been completely lost.

In a freely available "textbook" of archaeology (from 2008), we read that foreign literature on fabric finds and itsm prints have been studied for some time, but the domestic environment is lagging behind, mainly due to only sporadic finds (Salač 2008, p. 64). A very interesting foreign article by S. Mitschke is presented here (Mitschke 2001). One of the mentioned isolated finds is a bronze bucket with fabric from the Roman period (Březinová - Poppová Urbanová 2009), cf. FIG.1.

Salač, Vladimír (ed.) et al. 2008.

Mitschke, S. 2001: Zur Erfassung und Auswertung archäologischer Textilien an korrodiertem Metall. Eine Studie zu ausgewählten Funden aus dem Gräberfeld von Eltville, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis (5th-8th Jh. AD). Kleine Schriften 51. Marburg.

Březinová, H. - Poppová Urbanová, K. 2009: Textile fragments on a bronze bucket from the Roman period, Archaeological Research LXI-2009, 101-117.

In general, any find that would lose information through cleaning or delaboration is better consulted before submittingthe archaeologist with whom we work and under whose auspices the prospecting is carried out. I myself found a cache of Roman coins a few years back (FIG. 2) and the find went straight to the archaeologists, if only because some of the interventions could be irreversible (e.g. it was not certain what kind of coin - of what material - was in the middle). Whether the coins were in the destruction of the object or as part of the equipment of the urn grave, I do not know now, but only thosem that the find is processed by an archaeologist and a conservator, there may be a further shift in the interpretation of my find.

Also, in the High or Late Medieval period, it is important to treat finds so that the information does not disappear. As an example, I give the find of the Pragueers with the remnants of the Rokycany cloth (FIG. 3). In the excursus of the article there is an expert analysis of the fabric.

Jiří HÁNA - Jiří MILITKÝ - Pavel VAŘEKA : A FIGURE OF THE PRAGUE GROUCHES OF KARL IV. AND VÁCLAV IV. AND A SET OF LOST COINS DISCOVERED DURING ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN ROKYCANY Numismatic Proceedings 27/1.

I also recommend the following article for information on archaeological research of textiles:Březinová Helena - Johana Tlustá, 12. 2020, Under the hood of archaeology (15).

Now a few more examples of other types of traces that may remain on finds and are important for research. The archaeological research station in Těšetice - Kyjovice shared on its Facebook profile a short report from the lecture of the trio J. John, H. Šuláková and D. Hlásek on insect remains from burial components of the earlier Bronze Age in southern Bohemia (FIG. 4). They copy part of the text:
"The relatively small and often easily overlooked impressions of the larvae of the two-wingedinsects (mainly of the fly family), which may be preserved in the corrosion layer on the surface of Bronze Age objects. Thus, we can determine from specific insect species when the body was placed in the grave pit or what stage of decomposition the body was probably in."
Facebook Archaeological Site Těšetice-Kyjovice, post: https://www.facebook.com/tesetice/posts/4699726343412175

From the discovery of the object itself to the naturalistic analysis of the macrofossils found inside the vessel, the discovery of a bronze sittula in Pardubice (FIG: 6) is a great achievement. In fact, thanks to the careful intervention during excavation, it was possible to carry out natural history analyses, the results of whichThe result was the discovery that millet beer could have been brewed in the vessel in the earlier Iron Age - i.e. "our" oldest beer. And all this is only thanks to the fact that the vessel was not cleaned in any way after removal and the samples were not destroyed.
https://olomoucka.drbna.cz/zpravy/vzdelani/23189-nejstarsi-prosne-pivo-v-evrope-vedci-rozklicovali-historii-pravekeho-vedra.html
https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/oldest-millet-herbal-beer-may-have-been-brewed-in-east-bohemia?fbclid=IwAR3qFtt_-p4fPMDIMMGuM_SALQ-CvNPYn93tVMMEBydOlhOWGpetq3SFb0I
The analysis also resulted in an article in a prestigious international scientific journal
https://www.researchgate.net

As a last one I add a find from the research in Hulín from the older Bronze Age. Although this is an official field research, similar objects can certainly be found during an independent detector prospection when we come across a disturbed grave in the field.
The jewellery in question is of the older Bronze Age - spiral rings. The find in question contains traces of human papillary lines, which were etched simplistically into the patina of the artifact (FIG. 7).
J.
Peška - M. Daňhel 2009.

I greet all of them without exception with friendly greetings and I believe that the article is beneficial for further study of ourlesions and to pause over the cleaning of each find without prior consultation with experts. So, first of all, no chemicals - acids and no rough mechanical cleaning unless you are 200% sure that no damage to the find and therefore no loss of information will occur.

Zdeněk Omelka
Archeo Moravia z.s.
www.archeomoravia.cz
www.spolupracuji.cz

FIG.1.: H. Březinová - K.
Poppová Urbanová.

FIG.2.: Finding of Roman coins connected with corrosion products
(prospectus for ARÚB Brno), photo Zdeněk Omelka.)

FIG.3.: J. Hána - J. Militký - P. Vařeka: Treasure of Prague groschen of Charles IV. and
Václav IV. and a set of lost coins discovered during archaeological
research in Rokycany.

FIGURE 4: J. John - H. Šuláková - D. Hlásek:
Insect remains from burial components of the earlier Bronze Age in southern Bohemia

FIGURE 5: H. Březinová - J. Tlustá: Under the hood of archaeology (15):
Textiles as an archaeological find.

FIG. 6.: Found bronze vessel - situla -
containing organic remains (https://olomoucka.drbna.cz/).

FIG. 7.: J. Peška - M. Daňhel: On significant archaeological finds.

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