Many delicately carved ivories buried since 61 B.C. were excavated in a storage room at Fort Shalmaneser, Nimrud in Iraq. As they first became visible and while still in the soil, very friable pieces were coated with dilute polyvinyl acetate solution. The clay in which one of these was embedded was undercut and removed as a chunk. Chunks were transported to the expedition house where restorers spent long hours freeing objects from the clay, bringing to light intricately carved designs with colored paste inlays. Long burial had inevitably split the ivories into fragments which were reassembled after or during cleaning, using a polyvinyl acetate solution as the adhesive. The finished ivories were given a final coating of the same material in thin solution. After treatment pieces were registered, catalogued and photographed. -- AATA