Boxed but not forgotten: The significance of collections-driven research in historical archaeology

The reality of archaeology is that there is a great deal of emphasis on fieldwork and reporting on current findings. What is often overlooked is what happens after fieldwork--what happens after all those artifacts are boxed and on the shelves of a repository? As a discipline we are missing out on the vast research potential that lies in the archaeological collections that fill our repositories. The intent of this session is to bring together some of the ongoing work that is being done based on existing collections and to highlight the ongoing intellectual value of archaeological collections. The session is part of an ongoing initiative by SHA's Committee on Collections and Curation to highlight the importance of archaeological collections