Rethinking Artifact Curation: Updating Archaeological Laboratory Procedures at the Curatorial Facility for Artifact Research

The Curatorial Facility for Artifact Research (CFAR) holds thousands of artifacts from the archaeological investigations of 32 historic sites in Texas under the jurisdiction of the Texas Historical Commission - Historic Sites Division. The Historic Sites Division is dedicated to curating the collections and making them widely accessible to researchers and for future exhibition. To aide in this goal, I created, revised, and updated their laboratory curation procedures and policies manual. In doing so, I explored how to make collections and objects accessible while broadening their usability through implementing information methodologies surrounding description and cataloguing. Additionally, I incorporated physical and intellectual preservation methods, and considered notions of subjective and objective value. The final laboratory manual will serve as a guide to curating legacy, current, and incoming collections.