>>>>And that it is collecting that seems to have created the field of
archaeology in the first place.  <<<<

It's not collecting, but amateur collecting, that's the problem.  Yes,
museums started long ago from the collector's spirit.  However, we now do so
much more than many amateurs.

The pot has intrinsic value, but its location with respect to everything
else in the site has so much value that is so often lost during amateur
collecting.  Archaeologists spend huge amounts of time documenting this
before digging deeper to see what else is there.

Its condition is also information that is generally lost during cleaning and
during whatever environments its exposed to between discovery and its
current place.  How was it handled initially?  To what has it been exposed
in the years since?  Is that dirt from the original site or from the factory
down the street from the last owner's house?  Was it that color or has it
faded while on display in someone's living room--in sunlight or in a dark
corner?  Were those cracks there all along or was that when someone's dog
knocked it off the table?


>>>Museums place their collections on display for the world to see, to
learn, and to enjoy.  Archaeologists, I've heard, hoard their findings
in university cellars pending publication that rarely occurs.<<<

Museums "hoard" their stuff, too.  Again, the scientific value often drops
if the specimen is put on display--fading, cracking, alterations from
temperature and humidity regimes, and so on and on.  One function of a
museum is display, but another is to store material for research.  People go
to museums and look at the displays to learn about the world, but the actual
research behind the labels is usually done on the stuff that's *not* on
display.  We learn about the world from the research collections and then
teach about the world through the percent that's put on exhibit.

As to "publication that rarely occurs", I find that very hard to believe,
especially in the university world.  Does the phrase "publish or perish" no
longer pertain?

just my 2 cents,
Robin

Robin K Panza                         [log in to unmask]
Collection Manager, Section of Birds          ph:  412-622-3255
Carnegie Museum of Natural History       fax: 412-622-8837
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh  PA  15213-4008  USA

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