Using and Curating Archaeological Collections

By S. Terry Childs

All archaeologists have responsibilities to support the collections they produce, yet budgeting for and managing collections over the length of a project and beyond is not part of most archaeologists’ training. While this book in the SAA Press Archaeology in Action Series highlights major challenges that archaeologists and curators face with regard to collections, it also stresses the values, uses, and benefits of collections. It also demonstrates the continued significance of archaeological collections to the profession, tribes, and the public and provides critical resources for archaeologists to carry out their responsibilities. Many lament that the archaeological record is finite and disappearing. In this context, collections are even more important to preserve for future use, and this book will help all stakeholders do so.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780932839626

Book preview

Childs-Curating_cover.jpg

Using and Curating Archaeological Collections

S. Terry Childs and Mark S. Warner, Editors

The SAA Press

Washington, DC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Childs, S. Terry, editor. | Warner, Mark S., editor.

Title: Using and curating archaeological collections / S. Terry Childs and Mark S. Warner, editors.

Description: Washington, DC : The Society for American Archaeology, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018052708| ISBN 9780932839619 | ISBN 9780932839626 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Archaeological museums and collections—Management. | Museums—Collection management. | Museums—Curatorship.

Classification: LCC CC55 .U85 2019 | DDC 069/.5—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052708

Photo Credits

Front cover contemporary photo: Julia King

Front cover historical photo: photographer unknown, used with permission, University of Iowa office of the State Archaeologist

Back cover photos: All images taken by Danielle Benden and used with permission.

Contents

Introduction: Progressing with Collections v

Mark S. Warner and S. Terry Childs

Section I: Valuing, Benefiting from, and Using Archaeological Collections

1. Doing Research with Archaeological Collections

Julia A. King

2. Tribal Voices on Archaeological Collections

Angela Neller

3. Care, Access, and Use: How NAGPRA Has Impacted Collections Management

Sheila Goff

4. Integrating Curation Training in Academic Programs and Beyond

Danielle M. Benden

5. Collaborative Mitigation: Creative Success Stories Using Archaeological Collections

Heather L. Olson and Ralph Bailey

Section II: Tackling Collections Issues

6. Best Practices for Collections Management Planning

Teresita Majewski

7. Being a Curator: Revisiting the Curation of Archaeological Collections from the Field to the Repository

Lynne P. Sullivan and S. Terry Childs

8. On Whose Grounds? The Importance of Determining Ownership Before There Is a Collection

Sara Rivers Cofield

9. Orphans on the Shelf (and in the Attic)

Heather L. Olson and Danielle R. Cathcart

10. The Preservation and Management of Archaeological Records

Sara Rivers Cofield and Teresita Majewski

11. The Possibility of Deaccessioning Federal Archaeological Collections

S. Terry Childs

12. Every Artifact Is (not) Sacred: A Call to Rethink Historical Archaeology’s Collection Management Assumptions and Practices

Mark S. Warner

13. Dodging the Repository Money Pit: The Iowa Experience

John L. Cordell, John F. Doershuk, and Stephen C. Lensink

14. Implications of Limited Collections Policies and In-Field Analysis

Brian Crane and Michael Heilen

Section III: Finding What You Need: Resources for Archaeological Collections

Danielle M. Benden

Epilogue—Behind the Crimson Curtain: A Once and Future Tale of Collections

Jenna Domeischel and Michael K. Trimble

Introduction: Progressing with Collections

Mark S. Warner

and

S. Terry Childs

On the whole, collections are in better shape than they were 25 or 30 years ago. . . . what is often missing in our discussions is a genuine appreciation of how far we have come in one generation

—(Marquardt 2004:172, emphasis in original)

The opening quotation comes from Bill Marquardt’s epilogue to this volume’s predecessor, Our Collective Responsibility: Th e Ethics and Practice of Archaeological Collections Stewardship (Childs 2004). We highlight this passage because of the fact that Marquardt is reminding us to focus on what has been accomplished in the world of archaeological collections—and not to obsess over the all-too-familiar challenges that we face when dealing with them. What we hope to accomplish in this volume is to follow Marquardt’s admonition to continue to look forward by focusing on the values and benefits of collections in order to justify why we need to improve their long-term care. We do this by bringing together a series of short chapters organized in three sections.

This volume is an outgrowth of the progress that has been made by many professionals. The idea for the book originated in the meetings of the Archaeological Collections Consortium (ACC), a working group composed of representatives from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA), and the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA). The group is supported by the three organizations and has been in existence since 2012. It was established to create avenues for communication between SAA, SHA, and ACRA and to serve as a unified voice for collections-related issues that are relevant to the three organizations and their members. One of the key needs identified by the group was a volume on collections-related issues that would bring together the current state of knowledge about and experience with the management of, access to, and use of archaeological collections in the United States before fieldwork starts as well as throughout the life cycle of collections (Childs and Benden 2017).

The ACC is well aware of both the improvements to and the challenges of curating archaeological collections worldwide and hopes that most of the chapters are useful to a global audience. We do acknowledge, however, that the volume largely focuses on practices and outcomes based on US federal, state, and tribal law, regulations, and policies.

Speaking of worldwide challenges, we need to call attention to the issue of curating digital archaeological records, including those from scanning objects. This topic is well covered in the chapter by Rivers Cofield and Majewski, but we feel it has many facets that are best addressed in a separate volume. We already see this topic gaining considerable attention in the literature; Rivers Cofield and Majewski’s chapter and Section III provide many relevant references to it. At the same time, we want to sound a note of caution. Digital records, including data, should not be privileged for long-term management and care of the artifacts and ecofacts recovered during archaeological investigations or any hard copy records. The proper curation of all are critical to future uses of collections.

The primary how-to books on curation and collections management, Curating Archaeological Collections: From the Field to the Repository (Sullivan and Childs 2003) and SAA’s Our Collective Responsibility (Childs 2004), are now roughly 15 years old. Given the central role collections play in all archaeologists’ lives, a new volume is clearly needed. Indeed, it is an interesting commentary on the discipline that over the same 15-year interval between volumes, at least half a dozen new books on archaeological field methods have been published, most without good discussions that consider collections curation before, during, and after the artifacts and records leave the field.

The first of the three sections in the book is Valuing, Benefiting from, and Using Archaeological Collections, which highlights the importance of collections to archaeologists and many other audiences as teaching, research, heritage, and resource management tools. Key topics explored in the section include doing research with existing collections (King); tribal stewardship and archaeological collections (Neller); the impact of NAGPRA on curating collections (Goff); how to teach collections care while using collections as a teaching tool (Benden); and innovative ways to incorporate collections use for compliance-driven mitigation (Olson and Bailey).

The second part of the volume, Tackling Collections Issues, aims to work the problem and explore many of the important issues facing archaeologists, curators, and collections managers today. Our hope is that improvements in collections management and use can continue to be made by focusing on the context and suggested solutions for some common, ongoing challenges. These challenges include how archaeologists can better plan, budget for, and justify the curation of collections for the future (Majewski); the multiple roles of a curator today (Sullivan and Childs); collections ownership (Rivers Cofield); orphan collections (Olson and Cathcart); archaeological records management (Rivers Cofield and Majewski); and deaccessioning collections (Childs). The section concludes with three chapters related to issues of sustainability. Warner’s chapter continues the discussion of deaccessioning by offering a proposal for a more sustainable strategy to manage and curate historical period collections. Cordell and colleagues offer considerations on how to make archaeological repositories sustainable based on their collective experiences in Iowa. Finally, Crane and Heilen examine the validity of no-collection and in-field analysis field strategies, which they argue are methodologically suspect. Their chapter raises an important question: How will the wide variety of future uses and benefits of collections be sustained if these field strategies continue to be employed without awareness of their impacts on archaeological practice?

The third section, Finding What You Need: Resources for Archaeological Collections, is a compilation of websites and publications pertinent to curation and collections management provided by Danielle Benden. It serves as a reference source for archaeologists, curators, collections managers, researchers, and others on seven key topics. In the interest of space, examples of documents mentioned in various chapters, such as deed of gift forms, are not printed in this section. Links are provided where readers may access such documents or find further information about them. An online version of this section is available at https://www.saa.org/publications/the-saa-press/section-III.

The epilogue by Domeischel and Trimble entreats archaeologists and curators alike to value, use, and make available archaeological collections for a much wider audience than we might typically consider, such as children, students, families, and retirees. They showcase the many exciting ways that this is being done and underscore the benefits of such activities as an inspiration to and model for us all.

Our hope is that this volume serves all stakeholders in archaeology. Several chapters highlight the benefits of collections for tribal members and other descendant communities. For professional field archaeologists, many chapters raise awareness of the consequences of the just dig and we will deal with the collections later approach. The volume provides curators, collections managers, and others involved in the care of collections with guidance on many topics of current concern. Students and new professionals are presented with context for understanding the ongoing collections issues that field archaeologists, curators, descendant communities, researchers, and others face, as well as with recommendations for how to benefit from collections themselves. Also, the volume is a significant teaching tool, particularly for faculty who are teaching courses or course segments on collections management, need coaching on how to develop such courses, and/or want to incorporate collections into their coursework. The chapters include topics that do not receive adequate coverage during the education of many archaeology students, despite significant increased interest in collections curation and collections-based research in recent years.

Finally, we believe that the book can put academic, government, and CRM archaeologists, cultural resource managers, and tribes in a better position to make more informed decisions about the collections for which they are responsible. We further hope it will stimulate archaeologists to think creatively about the still-untapped potential of archaeological collections for many uses in the future.

Acknowledgments

In keeping with the spirit of the Archaeological Collections Consortium (ACC), we want to note to our readers that this book is co-published with the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA), and the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA). Thanks to the Board of Directors of these three organizations for their ongoing support of the ACC. Thanks also to all of the authors in this volume for sharing their experience and passion for archaeological collections. Particular thanks go to our fellow ACC members, all of whom have contributed chapters to the volume and helped shape this work since it was first suggested in 2015.

References Cited

Childs, S. Terry (editor)

2004 Our Collective Responsibility: The Ethics and Practice of Archaeological Collections Stewardship. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.

Childs, S. Terry, and Danielle M. Benden

2017 A Checklist for Sustainable Management of Archaeological Collections. Advances in Archaeological Practice 5:12–25.

Marquardt, William H.

2004 Epilogue: A Personal Retrospective on Archaeological Curation in the USA. In Our Collective Responsibility: The Ethics and Practice of Archaeological Collections Stewardship, edited by S. Terry Childs, pp. 169–174. Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC.

Sullivan, Lynne P., and S. Terry Childs

2003 Curating Archaeological Collections: From the Field to the Repository. Archaeologist’s Toolkit, Volume 6. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Section I

Valuing, Benefiting from, and Using Archaeological Collections

Why are archaeologists firmly committed to a stewardship ethic for archaeological resources yet seem to forget that archaeological resources include the very collections they create? Why do many archaeologists ensure that the collections they recover are cared for long enough to write articles and books about their projects, but not long enough for future researchers, descendant groups, students, curators, and the public to benefit from the long-term curation of these collections? Is it ego; did they forget to budget adequately for the long-term preservation of their collections; or do they believe they are no longer responsible for the collections once they have finished gathering data? Why isn’t archaeological collections curation and management, from the field to the repository, valued enough to be taught in every graduate program in archaeology?

These are some of the questions that are explored as we look at the values and benefits of archaeological collections for use in the future by a whole host of people, and not always archaeologists! We hope these chapters inspire educators to think about collections in new ways, tribal members and other descendant communities to get involved with collections related to their ancestors, and students to appreciate collections as an invaluable resource. Archaeologists will learn the many public benefits that can be achieved when mitigation strategies are developed around the preservation and use of collections as an alternative to excavating yet another site. The benefits and methods of researching existing collections to gain new insights into old questions, along with the importance of training students in collections curation and management, will enlighten archaeologists who care to read, learn, and implement.

1

Doing Research with Archaeological Collections

Julia A. King

How does one go about using legacy archaeological collections—or any archaeological collection, for that matter—for research? The prospect can be daunting, especially if you are staring down dozens of boxes on shelves, as my colleagues and I were when we undertook a comparative study of archaeological collections, first from the Potomac River valley and then from the nearby Rappahannock River valley (Virginia). But the rewards are worth it. The Potomac River project, for example, revealed material expressions of the interactions between European colonists, African slaves, and indigenous people in a way that no single site excavation could have done ( Colonial Encounters 2018 ). For Davidson and McIlvoy (2012), the eureka moment occurred when they discovered artifactual evidence for African spirituality in the Kingsley Plantation collections excavated in the 1960s by Charles Fairbanks. For Egghart (2017), the moment came when he could link projectile point types from southern Virginia to traditions in the northeastern US using materials found in an avocational archaeologist’s collection. The literature is replete with similar discoveries for those studying legacy materials.

The value of archaeological collections lies in the fact that they already exist, potentially saving time and money in terms of data collection. The savings can be considerable given the costs of labor-intensive fieldwork. In many cases, collections are all that survive from important archaeological sites that have since been destroyed or otherwise made unavailable for research. Archaeological collections can also be useful for comparative purposes or to build or test hypotheses or models of human behavior. And, there is no shortage of archaeological collections. While no effort has yet been made to estimate the total number of collections available worldwide, in 2017, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) estimated that it controls more than 63 million artifacts and that this number will continue to increase (US Department of the Interior 2018). Many nonfederal repositories describe millions of artifacts from hundreds and even thousands of sites in their respective collections (e.g., Hicks 2013; Pim 2015; Florida Museum of Natural History 2017).

Archaeological collections typically consist of the physical collections, including artifacts and associated records, and any digital datasets. The physical collections generally include fragmented objects that tend to preserve well in the ground, although organics and oversized objects are also often found. The records can include level or provenience forms, survey logs, maps, photographs, artifact catalogs, journals, and a myriad of other records; these records can be in paper, film, or digital format, or all three (Rivers Cofield and Majewski, this volume). Records are key as they typically contain important, often irreplaceable, information linking artifacts to provenience. Some collections can be in good order and well curated while others are poorly housed and poorly stored, inaccessible, actively degrading, and even at risk for loss (Sullivan and Childs 2003).

The guidance presented in this chapter applies primarily to archaeological collections housed in museum and other professional repositories. Do not overlook the research value of collections held by avocational archaeologists or collectors, including landowners. Archaeologists have had a sometimes-fraught relationship with collectors, and privately held collections tend to be biased toward unique or whole artifacts. They are rarely accompanied by records of where or when they were found or by the artifacts associated with them at the time of discovery. Nonetheless, collectors, many of whom are motivated by the same interests in the past that drive archaeologists, can often provide general locational and other contextual information (Pitblado and Shott 2015). Landowners, when made aware of the historical and cultural value of their materials, may choose to donate their collections to an appropriate repository. Many repositories will accept such collections as they can fill important gaps in archaeological knowledge.

While collections-based research is not new in the field, the curation crisis has made archaeologists aware that archaeological collections remain underutilized. Even when access is not a problem, coming to grips with an assemblage can be a daunting exercise. As more and more archaeologists turn to existing collections, both the challenges of collections-based research and approaches to these challenges are becoming more evident. This chapter synthesizes these approaches to provide direction for collections-based research, highlighting steps applicable across a wide variety of situations.

Research Questions and Datasets

Developing meaningful research questions is usually the first and often most challenging step in problem-based research, regardless of discipline. Most guides for formulating research questions—and there are many, both in print and online—invite researchers to consider their interests, prepare detailed literature reviews, and, from this background, research, identify, and focus their questions. Few guides direct researchers to begin with the data (or, in the case of archaeological collections, with the artifacts and records); that is, to sift through the evidence at hand in the process of formulating questions.

Nonetheless, many archaeologists have found that becoming familiar with the materials contained within existing collections is a critical first step in the development of research questions. In the case of Market Street Chinatown in San Jose, California, Voss (2012) found that the work of inventorying and rehousing older collections served to spur compelling questions as researchers became familiar with each collection’s contents. Baxter (2016:85) describes this as re-ordering the scientific method to allow legacy data to influence (if not drive) hypothesis testing . . . and interpretive analysis. This approach, which has been adopted by many archaeologists, derives from grounded theory, a practice in many disciplines that builds theory from the data (Charmaz 2006, 2011; Davies 2017). Grounded theory, which has much