My old professor finally convinced me to stop brushing dirt off bones with a toothbrush

He said I was destroying surface marks that could tell us about butchering patterns, so I switched to a soft paintbrush and a bamboo pick. Has anyone else had to totally retrain their hands after learning a better method?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_bailey10d ago

The bamboo pick thing is actually a bad idea for most bones. Wood is softer than enamel sure but bamboo splinters and those micro-fractures can look exactly like rodent gnaw marks later under a microscope. I learned that the hard way after ruining a deer femur I was cleaning for a local museum. Soft paintbrush is fine for dust but you really should be using distilled water and a very soft sponge for the actual dirt, not scraping anything. What your professor meant about the toothbrush is that stiff nylon bristles scratch the cortical bone surface which removes those cut marks and striations you need for analysis. But a soft bristled toothbrush with gentle pressure isn't going to damage anything if you're just removing loose sediment. The real problem is people brushing too hard.

charlie_roberts8710d ago

So are you saying the bamboo splinter issue is more about it being bad for the actual analysis later, not just the bone surface? Or would you still avoid it even for a quick field clean where you're not planning to microscope it?