The Curation Crisis and the Bones of the Colby Mammoth Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the world of museums and curation, the curation crisis is accelerating. Due to poor preservation and curatorial techniques used in the past, many items in curation have been destroyed, physically lost, or lost their provenience. As standards get better and preservation techniques improve, a lot of artifacts located in collections are being rediscovered or reevaluated as new curators look through their collections. It is important that curators establish new methods for preservation within their collections, and the bones of the late Pleistocene Colby Mammoth site (located east of Worland, Wyoming) are no different. Originally excavated by George Frison in the latter half of the 20th century, the techniques of curation have surpassed those of the 1970’s and 80’s. By looking at the Colby Mammoth bones, researchers can begin to answer questions dealing with how curatorial practices have affected artifacts in their collections, especially organic remains like bone. To answer these questions, we examined the impact curatorial practices have had on the bones, and how practices have changed since the bones were put into the UW archeological repository. The results show how curatorial practices have developed over time, and how these practices have physically influenced the artifacts in their collections.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37552.0