Hello all-

I’ve started a blog for waterlogged basketry materials located at: www.waterloggedbasketry.blogspot.com and would appreciate your input.   Some of the research I have done over the past few years is represented here included a table of conservation information regarding wet sites in the NW that contained waterlogged basketry material, cross sections of fresh and degraded materials etc.

This is, of course, a work in progress.  As I have been pulling together the research and testing projects completed over the past few years I began to feel the desire to share some of my thoughts and find another way to learn from other peoples experiences.  I would like this to become a sharing space for those thinking about some of the issues related to conservation of waterlogged basketry materials.

I have not yet put the testing results up on the blog-  however, some of the summaries of those tests may make it there as I try to explain my new thoughts and approaches.

Looking forward to your input-

Dana

The procedure of identifying wood and fiber materials by microscopic cellular analysis on the Northwest Coast of North America from a number of recent wet site is reported, describing the microscopic differences between species of wood, basketry and cordage construction materials, and cultural charcoal. This technique has also been expanded to include the identification of cultural charcoal, adding insights into the use of fuelwoods by ancient peoples, as well as adding to the environmental knowledge of the flora of the time periods and regions examined.  The cellular identification of ancient vegetal material culture is complementary to information found in ethnobotanies and oral traditions, identifying traditional plant materials; as well as revealing new uses of plant materials:  Wet Site Wood-Fiber and Charcoal Cellular ID–Hawes

 Wood and fiber cellular identification and fuelwood charcoal speciation currently are services offered by the South Puget Sound Archaeological Training Laboratory (see Wet Site Services menu in NewsWARP.  If you have any questions on your own samples or these services, contact researcher Kathleen Hawes at:  aragalen@msn.com.