Marina Tinkcom
Areas of interest
Historic Archaeology, Archaeology of the Midwest, Archaeology of North American Mining, Post-Colonial Culture
Education
- MA: Heritage Resource Management M.A. Candidate
- BA: University of Wyoming 2014
- Wyoming Archaeological Field School 2014
MA Theses in HRM: Marina Tinkcom, 2019
The Present Status of the Curation Crisis and Deaccessioning in the United States
Committee
Mark Collard, Professor, Senior Supervisor
Jody Clauter, Alpine Archaeological Consulting, Project Archaeologist, Supervisor
George Nicholas, Professor, External Examiner
Abstract
Viewed as unmanageable, growing archaeological collections in the US were deemed the 鈥渃uration crisis鈥� in the early 1970s. Guidelines on curation were issued in 1990 with 36 CFR Part 79, followed by a call for national standards on curation and improvement on the status of collections by the Society for American Archaeology. National standards have not been issued, and it is not clear whether the call for improvement was successful since the current status of collections is generally unknown. This study assessed 11 major US archaeological repositories and determined around a third of collections do not meet modern curation standards, but many of the individual standards are being met. Funding and space are the most often noted hindrance, and methods used to meet standards vary across institutions. The major contributor to collections in the US is Heritage Resource Management. While every institution deaccessions collections, not all provided deaccessioning policies.
Keywords: 鈥痗uration crisis; archaeological collections; curation standards; questionnaire; deaccessioning