Computerization of the Mesoamerican and South American Archaeological Collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History

在国家科学基金会的支持下，耶鲁大学皮博迪自然历史博物馆将使其中美洲和南美考古藏品的目录记录计算机化。这些藏品是在130多年的时间里获得的，构成了大量具有巨大时间深度和空间广度的材料。它们在解决重要的文化史问题方面发挥了至关重要的作用，并继续为研究征服前的复杂文化提供了宝贵的资源。这些藏品包括从南部安第斯地区到北部墨西哥山谷的系统挖掘获得的材料。目前，这些收藏品以手写装订分类账的形式记录在66,000个目录条目中。这种基于纸张的格式使得获取关键的描述性数据变得困难，而且不可能对数据进行新的搜索。在国家科学基金会的支持下，这些信息将被输入皮博迪博物馆的计算机化关系数据库系统。这将使人们能够快速有效地获取这些藏品，并大大增强其研究潜力。该系统还将通过互联网提供数据，大大增加了使用机会。博物馆的藏品包含有价值的信息，使研究人员能够研究许多科学问题。皮博迪的材料可以为复杂社会的发展和维持提供新的线索。它们可以阐明在技术简单的社会中的社会组织和变革的原则，并增加我们对人与环境相互作用的理解。这笔赠款很重要，因为它将极大地增加藏品的研究潜力。

Coe With National Science Foundation support, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History will computerize the catalogue records of its Mesoamerican and South American archaeological collections. The collections have been acquired over a period of more than 130 years and constitute a significant body of material of great temporal depth and spatial breadth. They have been crucial in solving important culture-history questions and continue to provide a valuable resource for the study of pre-Conquest, complex cultures. The collections include material acquired through systematic excavations from the Andean area in the south to the Valley of Mexico in the north. Currently these collections are recorded in 66,000 catalogue entries in handwritten, bound ledgers. This paper-based format makes access to crucial descriptive data difficult and novel searches of the data are impossible. With NSF support, this information will be entered into Peabody Museum's computerized relational database system. This will permit quick and efficient access and significantly enhance the research potential of the collection. The system will also make the data available over Internet, greatly increasing opportunities for use. Museum collections contain valuable information which permit researchers to examine many scientific questions. The Peabody materials can shed new light on how complex societies develop and are maintained. They can illuminate principles of social organization and change in technologically simple societies and increase our understanding of human - environment interactions. This grant is important because it will significantly increase the research potential of the collections.