Toward an optimesed laser cleaning procedure to treat important paleontological specimens

In previous laser cleaning tests and analyses carried out on fossil bones, we demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the laser approach. Based on these results, we designed a cleaning procedure employing fibre-optic-delivered Nd:YAG laser radiation, integrated with other conventional cleaning techniques, such as micro-sandblasting and chemical cleaning. The procedure has been optimised for application on important specimens, such as the fossil human “skull of Buia”, recently discovered by a research expedition of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Florence and presently preserved in the Museum of Asmara (Eritrea). Here, we report laser cleaning tests where this procedure has been applied on samples of other mammalian bones from the Danakil depression and the site of Matassino (Italy).