Rehabilitating Old Archaeology Collections with GIS

Abstract

Archaeological collections are valuable, often irreplaceable scientific resources important in many ways to researchers, the institutions that hold them, and the public they serve. Many older collections are very large, complex, and unique. Unfortunately, the full potential of these cultural resources are often not realized, and thereby their value diminished. Research on these collections is hampered by traditional object-based collections management practices that are insufficient for maintaining the integral spatial component of archaeology collections in an accessible framework. Likewise, by maintaining our standard object-based curation methods, we risk rendering our most important new collections inaccessible for future work. Innovative use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in collection management offers an effective framework for re-establishing and maintaining critical spatial relationships, while providing a tool for traditional collections management purposes. A recent pilot study using GIS to rehabilitate the Marquette Mission site collection and conduct preliminary collections-based research is presented.