Excavation and Conservation of Waterlogged Archaeological Textile from the American Civil War Submarine H.L.Hunley

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Lives Revealed: Interpreting the Human Remains and Personal Artifacts from the Civil War Submarine H. L. Hunley" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

During excavation of the American Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley, archaeologists uncovered skeletal remains of the eight-man crew along with fragile, waterlogged fragments of their clothing. Due to their fragility, the textiles could not be excavated in situ, but were instead block-lifted and brought to the laboratory for documentation and excavation. Most of the block-lifts removed were composite in nature and contained a combination of textiles, skeletal remains, and artifacts.

Due to the difficulty of excavating the blocks, an immersion technique was implemented in which the sediment could be extracted without disturbing its components. Using this technique it was possible to uncover the textile remnants that were carefully manipulated and unfolded allowing us to remove the skeletal materials and associated artifacts.

This paper addresses the methodologies used to handle the block-lifts, describes the immersion technique developed to excavate them, and presents how the textile remnants were further processed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Lives Revealed: Interpreting the Human Remains and Personal Artifacts from the Civil War Submarine H. L. Hunley   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 350