Working in a museum artifact storage room, one can sometimes discover mysterious pieces. This is what happened to the Museum Collections Coordinator, Dr. Heather Hatch early December. On a shelf and on a wooden tray, laid two archaeological casts, with no or few pieces of information about them. Plaster casts, or field jackets, are rather common in archaeology, especially palaeontology: it helps to preserve and transport fragile features.

In order to identify them, the first step was to record the data incised on the casts. The smallest one had its originated site recorded. By consulting the field report from this specific site, was found the mention of wood fragments. The second step was then to try to scan the object.

Due to its size and the thickness of the plaster, the only available method was the CT scan. Even with this technology, Andrew (his status?) was only able to scan only half of the cast. But this was enough to confirm the content of the jacket.

It contained… There was solved the cast mystery! But the other cast remains, so stay tuned for another collections mystery!