The New Mexico Bioarchaeology Consortium: Building the Metadata and Creating the Gateways for Future Research

Summary

Human remains from archaeological sites in New Mexico have been studied since the 1870s, but much of the information is hidden in report appendices and filing cabinets – unsynthesized, underutilized. This inaccessibility impedes research on the biological histories of people in a region with one of the most abundant and detailed archaeological records in the world. The purpose of the Consortium is to create, grow, and maintain a virtual gateway to repositories of bioarchaeological resources (published and unpublished documents, data forms, images, data tables). Metadata on archaeological and bioarchaeological contexts for these resources will allow researchers in CRM, museum, and academic contexts to find information, collections, and archives in order to design and implement research for any scale of project – from contextualizing an inadvertently discovered burial to the design of a doctoral thesis. Core institutional members include the Office of Archaeological Studies, The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology (University of New Mexico), and Eastern New Mexico University, and we expect participation to expand to include individual researchers, museums, archival repositories, and other universities and CRM companies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Engaged Bioarchaeology Papers

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