The Native Village Buried By A Mudslide For 500 Years — And The 55,000 Artifacts Found Preserved Beneath The Mud
When this wood is excavated and begins to dry, the water evaporates.
As it does, surface tension in the drying water collapses the cellular structure.
The wood shrinks, warps, cracks, and potentially crumbles entirely.
Objects that have survived 500 years in the mud can be destroyed in minutes by careless exposure to air.
The Ozette team developed protocols to manage this challenge.
Objects were kept wet immediately upon excavation, wrapped in wet material and placed in water-filled containers for transport from the excavation to the laboratory.
In the laboratory, objects were placed in tanks of water where their condition could be assessed, their dimensions recorded, and their basic documentation completed before conservation treatment began.
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