Hi, (apologies for cross-postings) I am an archaeologist, recently arrived back in Australia after working nearly 9 years in Egypt, Jordan and the U.K. I am now undertaking PhD research that has resulted from collaboration between the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific at Deakin University in Melbourne, and Heritage Victoria. The project is called: “Making room for the past: determining significance in archaeological collections from historic sites”. The project aims to produce a model for assessing the scientific significance of historical artefacts, which will be applied to selected case study collections in Victoria and around Australia to test its effectiveness. Similar to the situation in countries such as the U.S and U.K, federal and state legislation in Australia since the 1970s has required that the impact on archaeological resources be evaluated when new land development proposals are made, and that excavation is conducted in cases where heritage resources are at risk. This has resulted in a huge increase in the numbers of archaeological sites being excavated, and therefore also in the numbers of collections of artefacts generated from such work, which require storage in museum repositories. Caring adequately for these collections is currently putting a serious strain on the resources of the repositories that hold them. A methodology is urgently needed for assessing the significance of excavated material in order to select for preservation those with the most long-term research potential. As far as I know, to date there has been no explicit treatment of the significance assessment of archaeological artefacts, how to design criteria for their assessment, nor practical examples of the application of such a methodology. During the study I will be very keen to communicate with archaeologists, historians, curators, conservators, and representatives of institutions, in Australia and overseas, who have experience of the issues related to this research, and who may be able to contribute to my understanding of them, in an effort to develop a potential solution. At this stage, I would just like to raise awareness about this research, and am very much looking forward to discussing more specific aspects of it with interested members of this list. If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you. Ilka Schacht PhD Candidate Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific Deakin University 221 Burwood Highway Burwood Vic 3125 Australia Tel + 61 3 9251 7206 Fax + 61 3 9244 6755 Email: [log in to unmask] http://www.deakin.edu.au/culturalheritage_centre ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).