Ben Franklin’s Mastodon Tooth, Frederick Douglass’s Arrow Point, and a Deadeye from a Revolutionary War Shipwreck: A Decade of Historical Archaeology in the Virtual Curation Laboratory

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Beyond the Classroom: Campus Archaeology and Community Collaboration" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL) was formally established at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in August 2011 using funding from a Department of Defense (DoD) Legacy Resource Management Grant and a partnership with Marine Corps Base Quantico (MCBQ). The impetus for this cooperative project led by VCU’s Dr. Bernard K. Means and the late John Haynes, then archaeologist for MCBQ, was to test the efficacy of 3D scanning for preserving and sharing archaeological items recovered from DoD lands. From its inception, the VCL was planned as a student-focused experiential learning environment. VCU undergraduate students in anthropology, art, and history were responsible for all aspects of operating the lab, including developing protocols used to teach other students, especially interns, that worked in the Virtual Curation Laboratory over the years. This presentation focuses on some key highlights of historical archaeology in the VCL including at Independence National Historical Park,

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond the Classroom: Campus Archaeology and Community Collaboration   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology