Used to just brush dirt off old pottery until a conservator at a dig in Tucson yelled at me for ruining surface details

Now I use soft brushes and distilled water after one bad day in 2019 when I wiped off ancient paint layers and the site lead said I'd damaged a whole vessel's historical value, has anyone else wrecked a piece because you didn't know the proper cleaning method?

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matthew7035h ago

Distilled water is actually a bad idea for a lot of pottery - it can pull salts out from deeper in the clay and leave white stains after it dries. Regular tap water or deionized water is usually safer if you have to use liquid at all. I learned that the hard way on a few pieces from a Mission period site where my "gentle" cleaning left bloom marks all over the surface. Soft dry brushes and maybe a little saliva on a q-tip for tough spots is what most field techs I've worked with swear by.