Permit Required: Catch and Release Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "I Know What You Did Last Summer: Student Contributions at Field Schools", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeology consists of the accumulation of notes, maps, paperwork, and artifacts. Whether it's a can with an embossed logo or hundreds of undecorated ceramic sherds, labs and museums are constantly inundated with new artifacts, even though a majority of the ones deemed uninteresting are never displayed or studied. As a result, there is an increasing divide between the number of artifacts collected and the storage space available. Catch and release archaeology is a practice of collecting the data necessary while leaving the artifact in its original location. In this presentation, we discuss how practicing catch and release archaeology affected our field school experience in Apex, Arizona, and taught us methods to help address the curation crisis. We aim to contribute our voices as students, not just to Apex, but to a greater conversation in archaeology, in the hope of future sustainability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• I Know What You Did Last Summer: Student Contributions at Field Schools   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow