Institute For Field Research

Courses in US-IL: Archaeological Curation

The Curating Archaeological Collections field school offers intensive hands-on training in pre-Columbian artefacts at the Center for Archaeological Investigations’ 9000 ft2 curation centre. Here you will learn skills that can be applied to a career in curation, museums, collections, archives, and of course, field archaeology, all while doing detective work to solve the many unpredictable issues that arise when rehabilitating old collections. Expect to come across one-of-a-kind and exemplary artefacts that few people have the opportunity to handle. You will walk away from this experience with a good working knowledge of how to care for, organize, and track collections on a large-scale, develop a base in prehistoric artefact identification, database use and design, and legislation governing collections management in the US (including NAGPRA). Field trips to regional museums and other repositories, visits to local archaeological sites and excavations, lectures, discussion, and optional weekend excursions into beautiful southern Illinois enhance this experience.