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.
New Life for Archaeological Collections explores solutions to what archaeologists are calling the "curation crisis," that is, too much stuff with too little research, analysis, and public interpretation. This volume demonstrates how archaeologists are taking both large and small steps toward not only solving the dilemma of storage but recognizing the value of these collections through inventorying and cataloging, curation, rehousing, artifact conservation, volunteer and student efforts, and public exhibits. Essays in this volume highlight new questions and innovative uses for existing archaeological collections. Rebecca Allen and Ben Ford advance ways to make the evaluation and documentation of these collections more accessible to those inside and outside of the scholarly discipline of archaeology. Contributors to New Life for Archaeological Collections introduce readers to their research while opening new perspectives for scientists and students alike to explore the world of archaeology. These essays illuminate new connections between cultural studies and the general availability of archaeological research and information. Drawing from the experience of university professors, government agency professionals, and cultural resource managers, this volume represents a unique commentary on education, research, and the archaeological community.
Biocultural collections are plants and animals used by people, products made from them, and/or information and archives about them. They are numerous and diverse, including biological specimens, natural products (e.g., medicine, food, fiber, oil, latex, etc.) and cultural artifacts (e.g., clothing, baskets, weaponry, tools, etc.) from around the world. Biocultural collections benefit scientists, conservationists, development workers, teachers, students, and the general public. However, these collections are poorly curated and data based - if at all - making them largely inaccessible for research and reference. At a time when wild crop relatives, landraces, and knowledge about traditional plant uses are being lost at an alarming rate, our biocultural collections are also degrading and being orphaned or lost. Curating Biocultural Collections aims to address these issues and develop standards of curation, and help institutions to properly care for collections that have been severely neglected and under-utilized. Written and edited by experts from around the world, this book demonstrates that with proper curation, data basing, and on-line and physical access, these valuable resources can be used in research, conservation, development and education, and preserved for future generations. Kew Publishing in association with Missouri Botanical Garden Press
"This book offers a systematic overview of the responses made by museums and other repositories in the UK to the ownership, care, storage, display and interpretation of human remains." -- back cover.
From the practice of a museum institution, six chapters reflect on the challenge of change in the areas of digitization, narrative, inclusivity, and participation.
This updated edition of Archaeological Research introduces the basic methods of archaeological research, including data collection, analysis, interpretation, as well as a consideration of the state of archaeology today. New to the Second Edition is updated information on geographic information systems and remote sensing strategies, and a greatly expanded discussion of practices in cultural resource management archaeology. This popular, concise textbook explores various research methods, analytical techniques, legal and ethical issues facing archaeologists; includes discussions of the archaeological process and record, sampling and research design, survey and excavation methods and strategies, recordkeeping, analysis, archaeological dating, presenting results, and research opportunities; is an excellent text for undergraduate students in basic archaeology courses, field methods courses, and field schools
The Museum Curator's Guide is a practical reference book for emerging arts and heritage professionals working with a wide range of objects (including fine art, decorative arts, social history, ethnographic and archaeological collections), and explores the core work of the curator within a gallery or museum setting. Nicola Pickering provides a clear introduction to current material culture and museum studies theories, and shows the practical application of these theories to museum collections. She considers the role of the curator, their duties and interaction with objects, and also examines the care or preservation of objects and the ways they can be catalogued, displayed, moved, arranged, stored, interpreted and explained in museums today. The Museum Curator's Guide represents an essential and lasting resource for all those working with the collection, preservation and presentation of objects, including students of collections management and curatorship; current gallery and museum professionals; and private collectors.
Museums and the Ancient Middle East is the first book to focus on contemporary exhibit practice in museums that present the ancient Middle East. Bringing together the latest thinking from a diverse and international group of leading curators, the book presents the views of those working in one particular community of practice: the art, archaeology, and history of the ancient Middle East. Drawing upon a remarkable group of case studies from many of the world’s leading museums, including the British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, this volume describes the tangible actions curators have taken to present a previously unseen side of the Middle East region and its history. Highlighting overlaps and distinctions between the practices of national, art, and university museums around the globe, the contributors to the volume are also able to offer a unique insight into the types of challenges and opportunities facing the twenty-first century curator. Museums and the Ancient Middle East should be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, archaeology, the ancient Near East, Middle Eastern studies, and ancient history. The unique insights provided by curators active in the field ensure that the book should also be of great interest to museum practitioners around the globe.
Since the first edition was published in 1958, Museum Registration Methods has defined the profession and served as a fundamental reference for all aspects of collections registration, care, and management. The sixth edition of Museum Registration Methods is a comprehensive guide to registration and collections management for museums, from acquisition to use and deaccessioning. The authors and other contributors come from a wide variety of museums and specializations. The 56 chapters in this edition are either new or updated, and include the history of the profession, the role of the registrar in the museum, managing very large collections, developing and implementing collection management policies, documentation of collections, accessioning, condition reports, deaccessioning, repositories, and provenance research. Contemporary and digital art, living and natural history collections, loans, exhibitions, found-in-collection objects, shipping, records management, and electronic data management are also addressed, along with object handling and numbering, digitization, condition reporting, preventive care, storage on and off-site, inventory, moving and packing, shipping nationally and internationally, couriering, risk assessment, security, insurance, integrated pest management, ethics, sustainability, sacred and culturally sensitive objects, intellectual property rights, appraisal, ethical and legal issues, and research. The book includes a comprehensive resource list, glossary, hypothetical situations to ponder, and model collection forms.