Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Traditionally, archaeology and bioarchaeology have been defined by excavation. Increasingly archaeologists are setting their “sites” on the storeroom and the archive. Engaging with collections, legacy data, accession forms, and excavation reports aligns with sustainability, open and slow science movements, and decolonial aims. Many also interrogate and respond to the colonial and imperialist histories of collections. Although collections-oriented studies are gaining visibility, few have fully engaged with the notion of curatorial institutions—museums, government repositories, nonprofit agencies, universities, private collections, and databases—as archaeological sites themselves. Yet, collections and archives are not neutral spaces. All have social and material histories shaped by entanglements with other objects, people, politics, events, and nonhuman actors. In turn, these histories shape the questions we ask and the conclusions we draw from them. The storeroom, archive, and database exhibit site formation processes—taphonomies—that also require excavation. Session papers investigate these “storeroom taphonomies.” What new questions or insights emerge when we turn our attention to the materialities of storage facilities and archives? We welcome discussions related to the various institutional settings where these processes occur and consideration of a range of artifacts and materials, such as, but not limited to, paper, bone, and organics alongside glass, metals, and ceramics.