To Collect or Not to Collect: That is the Question ...But Where is the Point?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "To Curate or Not to Curate: Surprises, Remorse, and Archaeological Grey Area" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Many land managing agencies have policies that forbid the collection of artifacts during archaeological survey and, even under controlled situations, as determined to be an "Adverse Effect" under Section 106 compliance interpretations. The main rationale is that removal destroys the contextual information of the artifact in relation to the rest of the site. This paper argues that such "non-collecting policies" are short-sighted and do not "protect" artifacts from unauthorized removal. In these days of technology, when sub-meter GPS instruments and other tools are available to pinpoint the location of artifacts, we submit that not collecting artifacts with important information potential is actually deleterious to the archaeological record. This point will be made by a case study from the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona that illustrates the excuse "if I don’t pick it up, someone else will," is a correct assumption, and that surface collections, properly documented, provide useful information that justifies their collection and curation for present and future research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• To Curate or Not to Curate: Surprises, Remorse, and Archaeological Grey Area

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25682