Rehabilitating the Radiocarbon Sample Archive at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since at least 1972, the Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS) at the University of Georgia (UGA) has maintained an archive of the pretreated and unpretreated remnants of samples sent for radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis. This growing archive now contains over 15,000 archaeological and geological specimens. In August 2022, CAIS initiated a project to rehabilitate this collection by cataloging and rehousing the entire archive according to UGA Laboratory of Archaeology and 36CFR79 standards. We discuss our process and detail some challenges unique to radiocarbon and other scientific sample archives. Drawing from our experience, we suggest some best practices for other institutions with similar collections. These include establishing complete and thorough informational control over collections and associated records, developing collections policies, and ensuring compliance with laws, such as NAGPRA (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act), which governs archaeological collections.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40085.0