A Program for Improving Access and Storage Conditions for Research Collections in Archaeology and Dental Anthropology at Arizona State University

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，亚利桑那州立大学（ASU）人类学系将整理他们的考古和体质人类学收藏的主要部分。这些材料构成了整个馆藏的重要组成部分，其中包括超过200万件带有相关档案记录的标本，这些标本构成了美国西南部最大的馆藏之一。目前，这些材料很难使用，因为它们没有完全编目，因此个别项目难以找到。存储条件不是最优的，这会给对象本身带来风险。为了解决这些问题，将对大多数考古收藏品以及大量的牙模进行盘点。这些信息将被录入计算机索引。将保存纸质档案记录，并购买储藏柜和容器来保存这些物品。亚利桑那州立大学的馆藏具有重要的人类学意义和重要的研究资料来源。项目中包括的考古材料主要来自西南部，大部分是从亚利桑那州中部约900个遗址中挖掘出来的。这是霍霍坎文化的史前核心地区。在这个地区，众多的城镇、村庄和个体农场构成了史前北美人类居住最密集的地区之一，并与已知的最广泛的史前灌溉系统之一有关。包括在这个保护项目中的牙科材料包括超过15,000个人类牙齿模型，代表了大约11,000个个体。在许多情况下，在单个个体的一生中进行了多次铸造，并且可以获得有关个体之间生物关系的信息。这些材料为牙齿发育、磨损、磨损和疾病的纵向研究提供了理想的基础，这些研究通常发生在单一遗传相关人群的成员之间。这个项目很重要，因为它将有助于保存有价值的科学数据，也因为它将使科学界更容易获得这些信息。

With support from the National Science Foundation, the Arizona State University (ASU) Department of Anthropology will curate major parts of their archaeology and physical anthropology collections. The overall holdings, of which these materials form a significant part include over 2,000,000 specimens with associated archival records and together these comprise one of the largest in the American Southwest. At the present time, these materials are difficult to use because they are not fully catalogued and individual items are therefore difficult to locate. Storage conditions are less than optimal and this results in risk to the objects themselves. To address these problems, most of the archaeological collections as well as a large series of dental casts will be inventoried. The information will be entered into a computerized index. Archival paper records will be preserved and storage cabinets and containers will be purchased to preserve the objects. The ASU collections are of great anthropological significance and an important source of research data. The archaeological materials included in the project derive primarily from the Southwest and the majority were excavated from ca. 900 sites in central Arizona. This was the prehistoric core area of Hohokam culture. Within this region, numerous towns, hamlets, and individual farmsteads constituted one of the densest areas of human settlement in prehistoric North America and are associated with one of the most extensive prehistoric irrigation systems known. The dental materials which are included in this conservation project include over 15,000 casts of human dentition and represent about 11,000 individuals. In many instances multiple casts were taken over the lifetimes of single individuals and information about biological relationships among individuals is available. These materials provide an ideal base for longitudinal studies of dental development, wear, attrition and disease often among members of a single genetically related population. This project is important both because it will help to preserve valuable scientific data and also because it will make this information more readily accessible to the scientific community.