Curation of Archaeological Materials in Cuernavaca, Mexico

This project will construct an archaeological storage facility in Cuernavaca, Mexico, for archaeological artifacts excavated at sites in the Mexican state of Morelos.

Over the past quarter-century, David C. Grove, Kenneth G. Hirth, and the author have directed a series of archaeological field projects in the Mexican state of Morelos. These surveys and excavations at sites such as Chalcatzingo, Xochicalco, and Yautepec have made important contributions to knowledge on several levels. They have revolutionized our knowledge of the prehistory of Morelos; they have helped illuminate the nature of ancient Mesoamerican cultures and their changes through time; and they have contributed to methodological and theoretical advances in modern archaeology. One measure of the scientific merit of these projects is that the National Science Foundation has provided the bulk of their funding.

The collections of archaeological materials from these projects constitute a unique database that continues to produce new research and insights long after the completion of the initial fieldwork. These collections have been stored haphazardly in a variety of facilities controlled by Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), ranging from a sixteenth-century convent to small storage sheds to open-air shelving. The curation of the collections has now reached a crisis stage (for a variety of reasons), and if a solution is not found soon much of the material will have to be discarded or else stored under conditions that will cause the rapid deterioration of bags, boxes, and notes, leading to the loss of crucial information.

This proposal is to construct a new storage facility to curate the collections from past and future U.S. archaeological fieldwork projects in Morelos. There will also be space to store collections from Mexican projects in the state. The facility will be built on the property of the Centro INAH en Morelos in Cuernavaca, and control and maintenance will be in the hands of a governing board composed of both U.S. archaeologists and INAH officials. Construction of this facility will ensure the long-term preservation and viability of scientifically important artifact collections, and thereby contribute to ongoing archaeological research in Morelos. Nearly all of the existing collections from completed U.S. fieldwork projects have been used for new analyses after the fieldwork, and this will continue for current and recent projects as well. The proposed facility will become a crucial part of the archaeological infrastructure of Morelos, and its construction at this time will be amply repaid with the results of current and future analytical research on these important collections.