Last Call! One More For The Road: Dissertating With Existing Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: How I Learned to Stop Digging and Love Old Collections" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the pursuit of acquiring knowledge a common culture of archaeological practice of keeping everything poses critical issues. Materials, at times unanalyzed and certainly underutilized, sit in repositories collecting dust while taking space and requiring financial obligations. These become unused and valuable waisted resources. My dissertation study uses existing collections from sites in Charleston, South Carolina to ask questions about the role of public space during the eighteenth-century. The choice to use existing collections has come with its share of problems and rewards. Through a discussion of my experiences choosing and working with existing collections, this presentation will touch on the state of collections and collecting practices while offering benefits to working with materials that have languished on shelves for years. With new technologies digging into a box can offer new insight and pose unanswered questions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Boxed but not Forgotten Redux or: How I Learned to Stop Digging and Love Old Collections

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 897