Lost and Found and the Peculiar Lives of Collections: Examples of Bridging Ethical Stewardship and Research with Florida National Park Legacy Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the ""Re-excavating" Legacy Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Many of our culture histories and chronologies were built by early generations of archaeologists who targeted superlative sites, often excavating voluminous areas or entire sites. Decades later, many of these collections remain uncatalogued, unstudied, or worse—relegated to garages, garbage piles, or lost completely. Contemporary archeologists and institutions face many modern challenges, including: lack of public support and funding; lack of space in curatorial facilities; and the looming threat of climate change which threatens the loss of sites, security, and stability of existing collections. These issues drive current and future collection policies as we continue to increase our collections and face capacity issues while salvaging sites being lost to climate change. We are running out of room—and so it is often asked, do we have room for legacy collections? Using examples of recent research on lost, rescued and legacy collections from Florida National Parks, we illustrate the incredible value and potential that legacy collections have to inform paleoclimate and paleoecology; refine spatial and temporal variability among sites, artifact typologies and chronologies; rewrite culture histories; employ new digital technologies; provide public outreach and educational opportunities; and offer new interpretations of Florida iconic sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "Re-excavating" Legacy Collections   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25806