In 1976 representatives from five Swiss laboratories agreed to carry out a joint experiment in which different methods of conservation (lyofix DML, Arigal C, alcohol/ether/resin, freeze-drying, PEG/freeze-drying, PEG, radiation polymerization of polystyrene) were applied to samples of the same type, taken from subfossil posts, and the results evaluated by a number of independent observers. The methods and results which have been published in detail elsewhere (Braeker and Brill, >Schweizerische Archaologie und Kunstgeschichte</i>, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 97-145, 1979) are summarized here. (See also AATA 14-929 and AATA 21-410)