In 1991, an archaeological dig undertaken in Saint-Nicolas, near Québec City, required the work of a conservator in order to rescue a seventeenth-century native burial. A careful excavation in the laboratory permitted the partial reconstitution of the burial ceremony and the preservation of artifacts too fragile for conventional field techniques. Two brass kettles, fourteen iron objects and one made of copper were unearthed and treated so as to recover a maximum of significant data on funerary rituals of the time. This paper presents the treatment procedures used, the contents of the grave, as well as the main anthropological conclusions drawn from the dig. It also illustrates the contribution of conservation to a multidisciplanary study involving archaeology, ethnology, and palaeoanthropology. -- CAL