Archaeologist here. Depending on how much deterioration an artifact has we can do something called electrolysis (typically in a sodium hydroxide solution) to reincorporate the lost material. After reincorporation our lab would coat the artifact in a weak acid to stop the reaction (turns the metal black) then coat it again in a thin layer of wax to seal.
JohannesVanDerWhales on July 2nd, 2018 at 23:10 UTC »
Would love to know how they do this.
garyzxcv on July 3rd, 2018 at 00:16 UTC »
A bucket full of CLR
terminuspostquem on July 3rd, 2018 at 01:53 UTC »
Archaeologist here. Depending on how much deterioration an artifact has we can do something called electrolysis (typically in a sodium hydroxide solution) to reincorporate the lost material. After reincorporation our lab would coat the artifact in a weak acid to stop the reaction (turns the metal black) then coat it again in a thin layer of wax to seal.