The Hendricks-Hodge Archaeological Expedition Documentation Project: Preparing a Museum Collection for Research

Summary

On the shelves of the Museum of the American Indian lie the pieces of a dramatic story that began unfolding in the Southwestern United States nearly 500 years ago. In 1540 the ancient Zuni villages of Hawikku and Kechiba:wa were bustling communities when the Zuni world was abruptly and irrevocably changed by a battle with the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Coronado, during his search for the legendary cities of Cibola. Through the ensuing years an uneasy relationship developed between the Zuni and other European intruders, be they missionaries, secular officials, traders, or soldiers. A glimpse into the life in these towns throughout their 300 years of occupation is possible through the analysis and interpretation of the artifacts on the Museum's shelves. They were excavated between 1917 and 1923 by the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation <MAI>.

Walking down an aisle at the MAI one sees row upon row of beautifully painted ceramic vessels carefully fashioned by ancient potters. Another aisle reveals stone manes and metates, corn grinding tools from rooms in what once were lively pueblos--thriving towns in the New Mexico desert. Dozens of drawers contain articles of everyday life, such as bone needles, shell beads, and stone knives. A rich ceremonial life is revealed through carved shell, turquoise mosaic pendants, and ceramic human and animal effigies. The impact of the Spanish entrada, begun with Coronado's visit is evidenced by the Mission Church timbers, ceramic altar vessels and candlesticks, iron crosses, copper bells, English ceramics, and even lead bullets.

These materials have been in storage since their excavation, essentially unstudied--due in part to the difficulty of extracting from the voluminous, but unindexed, documentation the particular sets of information relevant to modern anthropological research questions.

This thesis is, in part, a report on a documentation project undertaken to remedy that situation by indexing the materials and assessing their research potential. The goal of the project was to consolidate and cross-reference as much information about the collection as possible to make it readily available to the anthropological and Indian communities. Such access was expected to stimulate new research, analysis, and interpretation that could be presented to a broader public.

This thesis provides a brief history of material culture studies, addresses the role of museums and curators in preparing collections for research, and argues that it is the professional responsibility of museums and curators to assess the research potential of the collections in their care and organize the materials to facilitate access. To illustrate this point, a case study of a museum documentation project for the Hendricks-Hodge Archaeological Expedition collection at the Museum of the American Indian is presented. A description of the various components of the collection is provided, and the collection history of the artifacts is discussed. In addition, the thesis describes the database designed to cross-reference the artifacts to their documentation, and it provides examples of the utility of the database for collections management and research projects. It concludes with a section of summary comments.

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Contact(s): Brenda Shears

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