A Wealth of Data: Rising to the challenge of decades of curated collections
Other Keywords
Collections •
NPS •
Ethnicity •
Creamware •
Colonialism •
Urban •
Redware •
community archaeology •
XRF •
curation crisis
Temporal Keywords
18th Century •
19th Century •
Colonial •
18th-19th c.
Geographic Keywords
North America •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-6 of 6)
- Documents (6)
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From the Attic to the Basement: Rehousing the Archaeological Collection at Carlyle House Historic Park (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The John Carlyle House, a ca. 1753 structure located in Alexandria, Virginia, is owned and operated as a historic house museum and park by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. Limited archaeological survey of the site was conducted by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission in 1973, and the subsequent salvage excavations of four features were performed during restoration work on the house undertaken between 1974 and 1976. The artifact assemblage was later processed, catalogued and...
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Huguenot Heritage: Revisiting Curated Collections in NYC (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Previously excavated and curated collections are often seen as unworthy of serious scholarly attention. The drive to produce using entirely "new" excavations, artifacts, and data sets underlies and reinforces this pattern. This paper discusses two major components of using decades-old collections: research and responsibility. It first summarizes recent research demonstrating the accretion of class identity among French Huguenots in early 18th-century New York City. It then moves on to offer...
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Identification of Coarse Earthenware Potters on Production and Consumption Sites in Charlestown, Massachusetts Using Biometric Identification (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Every so often, the fingerprints of potters are left in the wet clay of coarse earthenware vessels. Many of these evocative "signatures" have been observed on redware that was excavated from the 18th-century Parker-Harris Pottery Site and Three Cranes Tavern Site in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Using a short-range 3D laser scanner to capture this data, a small comparative data set was compiled to determine if these biometric identifiers (finger and hand prints) could be used to directly connect...
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Scratching the Surface: New Discoveries Within Old Archeological Collections (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Here in the NMSC archeology lab, we are privileged to work with archeological collections from national parks across the Northeast. Many of these collections were excavated before 1987, and in many cases, sat untouched and unutilized in storage until they were eligible for cataloging funds. We have seen firsthand the incredible research potential – unknown and untapped for decades – that these collections offer. One memorable collection from Petersburg National Battlefield was excavated in...
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Teasing Out The Details: Re-examining A 19th-Century Boardinghouse Site In Lowell, MA (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Archaeological sites excavated under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 provide scholars a wealth of data at their fingertips. Due to the time and financial constraints of excavation, many collections are initially analyzed, stored in state and local repositories and forgotten. However, both academic and cultural resource management (CRM) collections are an invaluable source of new data. The re-examination of these assemblages can tease out more detailed or nuanced...
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"To Advance Learning and Perpetuate it to Posterity": New Narratives from the Harvard Yard Archaeological Collections (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Several systematic excavations have been carried out in Harvard Yard since the late 1970s, focusing on different locations, including the Old College, Holden Chapel, and, most recently, the Indian College. These projects have produced significant collections that exist in a variety of forms and conditions. Despite challenges, with attention, these finds can provide a rich, robust data set. New perspectives and analyses are enhancing our understandings of life at the college as it transitioned...