Practical guides for archaeological collections in private hands?
December 26, 2019 10:20 AM Subscribe
Are there good books or websites related to archaeological collections in private hands?
Imagine that a professionally-trained archaeologist in a small town did excavations of 19th- and 20th-century American house sites. The archaeologist is now dead, which is forcing the issue of what to do with the artifacts. The materials recovered are mostly things like tin cans, broken pottery, bottle caps, cigarette butts, and coins. None of the materials are Native American. The people who threw the stuff out are not very historically significant, and the items found are not likely to ever be of interest outside of the local region. Basically, the materials suggest what life was like here a century ago for ordinary people. Can you provide any suggestions for practical books or websites geared toward non-specialists that we should look at? Materials that would be helpful for thinking through the storing, handling, and interpreting of archaeological materials at institutions run mostly by volunteers with shoestring budgets would be especially appreciated.
Imagine that a professionally-trained archaeologist in a small town did excavations of 19th- and 20th-century American house sites. The archaeologist is now dead, which is forcing the issue of what to do with the artifacts. The materials recovered are mostly things like tin cans, broken pottery, bottle caps, cigarette butts, and coins. None of the materials are Native American. The people who threw the stuff out are not very historically significant, and the items found are not likely to ever be of interest outside of the local region. Basically, the materials suggest what life was like here a century ago for ordinary people. Can you provide any suggestions for practical books or websites geared toward non-specialists that we should look at? Materials that would be helpful for thinking through the storing, handling, and interpreting of archaeological materials at institutions run mostly by volunteers with shoestring budgets would be especially appreciated.
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Probably the most rewarding avenue would be to contact a local university. Especially if they have a historical archaeologist on the faculty, or have a museum studies program! If you're interested in partnering with someone, conserving and managing a collection like this would make an awesome dissertation project for a Masters student in either archaeology or museum studies. They would take good care of your collection and probably be happy to work closely with you and/or relatives. If you're interested in this, look out for archaeology departments that mention "public archaeology" or "community archaeology", or specialize in "applied anthropology".
Other than that, you can also contact your local state archaeologist and/or national parks archaeologist. You can look them up here. However, be warned that some of these professionals are notorious for not considering historic archaeology "real" archaeology. Local history museums might also be a good resource, or local historical/architectural societies.
Some info: a collection like this is only really of use if the artifacts have 'providence' - meaning, there is some record of where they came from. If they came from an excavation, do you have any documents in your collection related to that excavation? Notebooks, maps, forms, etc. Make sure you mention this when contacting anyone.
Good luck!
posted by EllaEm at 8:17 PM on December 26, 2019