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Photos of the cleaning process- I start by soaking my finds, in batches, in a bucket of just boiled water and bleach. I usually leave them overnight so that the bleach has time to really penetrate and kill off bacteria. I then remove them from the bucket, and refill the bucket with just boiled water, which everything gets thoroughly rinsed in- some of the objects may still have dirt clinging to them, so this is when I scrub them if needed. Once an object has been soaked, scrubbed, and rinsed it is placed on paper towels to dry. I then pat everything with the paper towels to make sure there is no moisture, and the objects are then ready to be taken in to uni to work with. As you can see I wear gloves right from the moment I pick the objects off of the beach, until they are fully cleaned, as I am very cautious about picking up bacteria or viruses from the river, and also to protect my hands from the bleach.

1. objects soaking in the bleach and water
2. some of the objects drying
3. other drying objects
4.   a section of jaw found with two teeth still attached
5. a vertebrae
6.  almost complete clay pipe