Student-Driven Case Studies of Private Collector Collaborations: From the San Luis Valley of Colorado to Portland, Oregon

Summary

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

Because of private land and genuine human curiosity, members of the public often hold considerable archaeological knowledge and cultural resources that professionals in the field have historically overlooked. When these collectors are "responsible, responsive stewards", language set forth by the SAA Archaeologist-Collector Collaboration Interest Group, they become integral partners in the discipline and can deeply impact our understanding of the past. These two projects uniquely explore ways to incorporate public knowledge and private collections into the professional world of archaeology. The first project centers on establishing a systematic process for collecting and investigating archaeological information on private land and private collections throughout Portland, Oregon. With this database, archaeologist would be able to better find private collections and collaborate with private collectors in their project areas. The second project combines methods of ethnohistory and field methodologies to retro-actively document four new archaeological sites on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in the San Luis Valley of Colorado with a local private collector. Both of these projects are examples of the growing understanding in the field that knowledge-making happens in many ways and to further our knowledge of the past, we need to engage with the public and work collaboratively.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23698