Collections as a Teaching Resource: A Case Study

Summary

The Anthropology Department at Texas A&M University has an extensive but largely underutilized collection of unprovenienved artifacts, intended for use as teaching collections. Many of these materials have diagnostic attributes but have not gone through the typing process and, therefore, cannot yet be fully incorporated into the teaching collections. The authors have designed several projects for students in introductory archaeology and old world prehistory courses that give these students the opportunity to have hands on experience with artifacts and learn what it takes to understand archaeological material. These projects are pulling double, if not triple duty - students learn not only how to identify and handle artifacts, but also learn how collections and curatorial facilities function and operate; the curator of the collections also benefits not only from the labor but also from ability to encourage young minds to appreciate anthropological collections and collections research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Teaching Archaeology: Highlights from the Committee on Curriculum and the Teaching Archaeology Interest Group

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