Hello Tammy,

Have you thought of doing a condensed version of your thesis and submitting
it as a technical brief for the SHA on-line publication series? Any
structured thoughts on this subject are worth publishing!

 
William Moss    
Chief Archaeologist

Design, Architecture et Patrimoine
Ville de Quebec
295, boulevard Charest Est
Quebec (Quebec) G1K 3G8
Phone : 418.641.6411, x2149
Fax  : 418.641.6455
[log in to unmask]
www.ville.quebec.qc.ca 


-----Message d'origine-----
De : Tammy Seiter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Envoyé : 7 janvier 2008 12:00
À : [log in to unmask]
Objet : Re: buttons to assemblages to ethics


In regards to your curation of artifacts that we can only get basic
information from, for my masters thesis I developed a de-accession policy
for historic artifacts.  Meaning what artifacts should we keep for curation
and what can be discarded.  It is a difficult decision for some on what to
discard because you never know what future research can develop for plain
ironstone and what information can we yield from artifacts down the road.
But the fact is that facilities are fiilled to the brim with artifacts from
19-20th century sites and how much undiagnostic clear body glass does one
need
 
So if any are interested I can forward my discard policy.> Date: Mon, 7 Jan
2008 09:26:00 -0500> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: buttons to
assemblages to ethics> To: [log in to unmask]> > Although Gaye & Carol's
messages were meant to be private, I picked up > on something and would like
to use it as a springboard to my own > question. I noticed that Gaye
mentioned a collection of over 8000 > DIAGNOSTIC artifacts (emphasis mine),
and Carol mentioned a typical > collection being about 1000 items
(diagnostic or non-diagnostic not > mentioned).> > I have been excavating
house yards in the c.1880s-1930s steel towns > around Pittsburgh, PA for a
proposed new turnpike construction project. > I tend to get over 1000
artifacts in a Phase I survey of a houselot > (mostly close interval shovel
testing and maybe 1-2 test units at most), > and get closer to 10,000 in a
Phase II (maybe 8-12 test units). In > addition to the usual building
materials (including flat glass), these > sites generate a lot of domestic
artifacts. But most of it is from > trampled yard deposits, where artifacts
are small, not from shaft > features such as privy or cistern, where
artifacts tend to be preserved > in larger pieces.> Most of the domestic
artifacts are ending up in two categories that seem > to be of little
interpretive use: - plain (undecorated) ironstone body > sherds and
unidentifiable fragments of curved glass (could be from > bottles etc or
from tablewares, no diagnostic embossing or other labels, > not large enough
to determine shape/size, etc.).> Can anyone suggest ways to wring more
information out of this data, > beyond its basic spatial distribution within
the site yard? If they are > non-diagnostic, is it acceptable to propose
that not all of them need to > be curated? This gets back to the problem
with state curation > facilities getting filled up. I would like to cull the
collection, such > as only keeping a sample percentage of these
non-diagnostic items. > Pennsylvania already has a policy in place for
discarding portions of > flat glass and other building materials, as well as
unidentifiable rusty > metal lumps. But the state wants to open the question
of discarding > addition materials from recent historic sites to wider
debate before > making a decision. So I am looking for input, either
information on > curation and discard decisions in other urban projects or
other states; > or information on how to get more data value out of the
artifacts and > therefore consider them worth keeping in full.> I would like
to see discussion on the list, especially since I can't > attend the SAA and
bring this up at the ethics bowl. If you prefer, you > are also welcome to
reply directly to me off-list. Thanks,> Melissa Diamanti> Archaeological &
Historical Consultants, Inc.> [log in to unmask]
_________________________________________________________________
Watch “Cause Effect,” a show about real people making a real difference.
http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/MTV/?source=text_watchcause