The Mesoamerican Laboratory Ceramic Type Collections Project at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Mesoamerican ceramic collections at the Peabody Museum represent the work of an array of influential scholars who collected and analyzed them, many of whom were pioneers in ceramic analysis, including Alfred Kidder, Eric Thompson, Anne Shepard, and Gordon Willey. Archaeologists in many cases still use the methods established by these scholars, and we often find pottery sherds in the Mesoamerican Laboratory that were illustrated in Peabody Museum monographs and other publications. These collections also represent the very limited number of ceramic collections that exist outside Mesoamerica, and in some cases are no longer accessible within their home country. The current project works to improve intellectual and physical control of collections housed in the Mesoamerican Laboratory through curatorial study and reorganization, so they can be used effectively by current and future generations of scholars, faculty, and students. In keeping with the Peabody Museum’s priorities, the project enhances knowledge of the collections through academic research on the "who/where/what/when/why" for each collection and highlights their historical value and scholarly significance. This poster outlines the project’s methodology, particularly the individual consideration applied to each collection to determine the best approach to reorganization, and how it may impact future use of the collection.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23558