Subscribe
Archaeology
February 23rd, 2011
The first step in any collections conservation process is a detailed examination of the object. How was it made? What materials was it made from? Has it been modified by use? Have there been previous repairs or restorations?
February 22nd, 2011
You can't tell a good display case just by looking.
February 22nd, 2011
When broken pots come into the museum, conservators repair them.
February 22nd, 2011
Examination under visible light is the first and foremost technique for investigating the surface of objects.
February 21st, 2011
Material records of pre-contact cultures include ceramics and textiles from settlements thriving between 1000 B.C. and A.D. 1300 on the Peruvian coast. These pieces came to light through the excavations of Field Museum Curators George Dorsey in the 1890's and Donald Collier in the 1940's and 50's as well as University of California anthropologist Alfred Kroeber in the 1920s.
February 15th, 2011
Our collection of clays and other ceramic raw materials from the Sepik coast of northern Papua New Guinea helps us understand the history of potting and exchange networks in the western Pacific.
February 14th, 2011
Our growing collection of obsidian from sources in the Mountain West allow us to identify the geological origin of obsidian artifacts housed in our collections, as well as those acquired during ongoing archaeological research projects.
February 02nd, 2011
In the sixth century A. D., a new state arose in the Ayacucho Basin of highland Peru. With an urban capital at the city of Wari, this expansive state would soon become the largest polity to cover Peru before the development of the Inca Empire. In fact, it has been argued that Inca politics and economics were based in the traditions of this earlier complex society.