Curation as research. A case study in orphaned and underreported archaeological collections

TLDR

Archaeologists face an international curation crisis, with many orphaned and underreported collections whose provenance and quantitative control are difficult to re-establish. The article contends that accessioning, inventory, cataloguing, rehousing, and conservation are generative research encounters rather than mere preparatory steps. Using the Market Street Chinatown collection, the authors show how curation activities can spark innovative research projects. The resulting research departs from conventional archaeology, offering fresh insights into the social history of the Overseas Chinese diaspora.

Abstract

Abstract As archaeologists grapple with the international curation crisis, new attention is being given to the problem of ‘orphaned’ archaeological collections and collections that are underanalysed and underreported. The common rationale for curating such collections is to restore research potential, but such efforts are met with frustration because of the difficulties of re-establishing provenance and quantitative control for artefacts long separated from their original archaeological context. Moreover, most archaeologists view curation as a process that manages, rather than investigates, archaeological collections. To the contrary, this article argues that accessioning, inventory, cataloguing, rehousing and conservation are not simply precursors to research, but rather meaningful generative encounters between scholars and objects. Examples from the curation of the Market Street Chinatown archaeological collection illustrate how the process of curation can generate innovative research undertakings. Because archaeological research on this collection cannot proceed in a typical way, the research developed through the curation process departs from archaeological conventions to bring new perspectives on the social history of the Overseas Chinese diaspora.