ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMS AND THE STORAGE SHORTAGE CRISIS
Loading...
Authors
Bouchey, Heather
Issue Date
2009
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
The purpose of this master's project is to inform professional archaeological collection managers about possible solutions to resolve and ease the storage shortage crisis. This crisis stems from federal regulations and overpopulated facilities with poor environmental controls. Currently, storage facilities for archaeological objects are understaffed, inadequately funded, operating with improper environmental standards, and are depleted of museum quality square footage for the storage area's present collections. This storage problem continues to escalate as archaeological excavations increase due to land development for real estate developers and research potential among professional archaeologists. The removal of objects from an excavation site is performed by cultural resource management companies and federal organizations who hire archaeologists to execute a professional excavation. Cultural resource management companies are privately owned archaeological businesses that contract out to anyone, including federal institutions that need to have an excavation performed on their property. These two groups have a professional and ethical duty to remove cultural objects and to have them stored in museum quality storage facilities for future research and access. The current practice within the field of archaeology is to remove all objects and other researchable materials such as soil samples and level bags which equates to leaving nothing behind. As the numbers of excavated objects continue to multiply, storage facilities are becoming full. This is leads to a worsening of the storage shortage crisis. Compounding the storage problem are federal laws that govern how these objects must be stored within professional facilities. As funding continues to tighten and the number of objects increases there are fewer storage spaces that fully meet all standards stated within those laws. In addition, having a skeleton staff of collection managers further complicates the ability to adhere to the requirements. Archaeologists want to continue collecting objects and performing research while museums want to be able to store the collections within professional storage facilities, but cannot, due to growing storage challenges. Herein lies the continuing and escalating problem.