by Marybeth Tomka

Training Announcement: Coming this March!

How to Curate a Collection at TARL

or

Why TARL Staff are so Picky

With every new administration, comes some change.  Well, I’m no different.  Since getting (back) to TARL in July, I have considered and made some alterations to the way a collection is to be submitted.  It’s not because I am compulsive, okay, not all due to that, but these changes reflect a way to increase the effectiveness of TARL’s database system to make doing research easier for you, the user!

I am currently collecting names and contact information from people interested in participating in the training seminar and will be announcing a date in March soon.  Meanwhile, check out the new TARL web site (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/orgs/tarl/) that has updated stipulations for both records and collections as well as new forms.  Here’s a breakdown of the significant changes to the collections policy:

1. All organics to be stored in General Collections – cost will reflect new storage area.
2. All materials to be kept in analytical categories regardless of storage space. Bags of separated categories to contain tag no smaller than 6 x 8 in size with same information as the current box tag.  Leave room for TARL accession number.
3. No bulk bone, shell or metal to be labeled.
4. Discontinue use of tag sleeves – replace with double bagging.
5. Fifty percent of debitage and ceramics larger than a US quarter only to be labeled.
6. All metal to be separated by object type – miscellaneous metal bags will not be accepted.
7. All unique items to be bagged separately: e.g., do not bag all bifaces together.
8. Artifact tags must have analytical grouping clearly written on tags and room left for the addition of the TARL accession number.
9. Samples that have be reduced for analysis must have original weight, sample weight, and remaining weight clearly identified in the accompanying records and the appropriate value listed on the tag.
10. Discontinue labelling the boxes, but place label inside box – cardboard boxes will be discontinued.
11. Collections Inventory worksheets will be required for isolated finds/general project materials.
12. An excel file will be submitted with the records that mirrors the Collection Inventory Worksheet. Template will be produced and distributed in early 2015.

These updated curation guidelines can be found on the TARL website here:  http://www.utexas.edu/cola/orgs/tarl/_files/pdf/Curation_Procedures_Collections_2015.pdf

So, see you at the seminar and I will explain the craziness of a curator.

Editor’s Note:  The NAGPRA Specialist will be attending the proposed training as well.  She will be seated at the very back selling small effigies of the Head of Collections, and large needles, for those of you inclined to express your dissatisfaction with having to learn new standards.  <j/k MB!….I will only sell the little needles!>   😉

About this post’s featured image, provided courtesy of Texas Beyond History:  Probably associated with the small amount of Late Prehistoric material from 41VT1, this small collection of prehistoric ceramic sherds is illustrated to show the general variability and represents the entire prehistoric ceramic collection from the site. These materials await further analysis and description. 

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/morhiss/images/VT1-pottery.html

by Kerri Wilhelm

Diane Ruetz and I have been volunteering at the Pflugerville Animal Shelter for about seven months now.  As ‘dog walkers’ we’ve come to know the various quirks and distinct personalities of the long-term shelter dogs pretty well.  Recently, one of the dogs who had been at the shelter for more than a year and who was often overlooked by visitors, was on a walk with a volunteer.  Shelby, a sweet and playful mixed-breed dog, has a fondness for playing fetch in the water.  No matter how small the pebble you throw into the creek for her to retrieve, she would consistently come bounding out with large rocks.  One day she brought up something a lot more interesting than a rock.  Read about Shelby’s ‘find’ and how the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory contributed to the story…and, we like to think, to her adoption by a loving family.

Shelby’s story on KXAN News (Austin area):

The below information was provided by TARL NAGPRA Specialist, Kerri Wilhelm, to Pflugerville Pets Alive following the discovery of the bone by Shelby.  PPA hoped that the discovery, and the prehistoric perspective attributed to the find by TARL staff, might help to inspire some positive exposure for Shelby.  They were right!

For more information on the Bonfire Shelter archaeological site, where the comparative bison bone (Bison antiquus) was originally discovered and the different kinds of information such finds can tell archaeological researchers at TARL, please visit the Bonfire Shelter webpages on Texas Beyond History:

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/bonfire/talkingbones.html#bones

by Kerri Wilhelm

The January 2015 issue of the Texas Exes publication, The Alcalde, included an article written by Rose Cahalan entitled “The Things They Carried: Inside the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory.”  Ms. Cahalan of The Alcalde and photographer Anna Donlan recently visited TARL for a tour of our collections.  The article begins by describing their initial reaction to being shown the ‘Hunter’s Pouch’ collection of artifacts excavated by A.M. Woolsey in Val Verde County during 1936.  It continues with their experience of observing Dr. Deborah Bolnick selecting skeletal elements for aDNA sampling in our Human Osteology Collection (where we use only archival boxes, not “cardboard boxes”) and segues to their description of the Vessel Collection.

Reading Cahalan’s article was a good reminder for those of us  on staff that there is a very perceptible difference between the lens through which we view the collections as professional stewards and archaeologists, and the lens through which non-archaeologists view them.  Of course, we manage and break down the archaeological collections here to their most granular typologies, classifications and descriptions; identifying discrete flaking techniques utilized, ceramic vessel decorative phases by time periods and skeletal elements most likely to provide collagen viable for stable isotope and aDNA analyses.  It is easy enough for us to forget that, to the ‘uninitiated,’ TARL at first appears like a great many older campus locations: starting to show its age, relegated to the outer margins and slowly beginning a descent into obscurity.  This is the part where we urge you to look more closely.

The Alcalde article is a reminder to us that it is not only our task to serve as stewards of these irreplaceable archaeological and ethnographic collections; it’s also our job to step out from behind the boxes and endless research-driven academic minutia  to remind people why it’s important for us to do what we do.  We need to remind people why the objects here are as significant historically, culturally and temporally as we say they are.  We need to help make Texas archaeology, and its rich material culture, more accessible to everyone.  We here at TARL hope this blog helps to evidence this philosophy of increased access as we strive to bring you highlights from our collections, records and research being undertaken.  We hope that sharing these things, in addition to any shared insights by affiliated researchers or guest contributors, become something ‘you can carry with you.’

You can find The Alcalde article in its entirety here:

http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2015/01/the-things-they-carried

The staff here at TARL would like to thank Anna Donlan, a photographer who contributes to the Texas Exes publication, The Alcalde, for granting permission to display her photographs here.

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/stlouis/