ABSTRACT
Archaeology is the production of knowledge through an accumulation of stuff: both the physical manifestations of the past and the associated archaeological recording materials. This stuff allows for hypotheses, reconstructions, and – at times – speculation about the lives of ancient ancestors. If excavation is the prevailing raison d’être of archaeology and the result is an accrual of artefacts and samples, along with the accompanying daily notes, digital records, maps, photographs, and plans, then the current conundrum is what to do with the archaeological stuff once it has been removed from the ground. With space for storage at a premium, the care and curation of stuff is one of the most urgent dilemmas facing archaeology and museums. Solving the crisis in curation requires creative thinking and collaborative efforts aimed at protecting the stored archaeological stuff. Not merely putting artefacts into boxes, or finding places to house those boxes, at the core of responding to the crisis are the ethical obligations of a discipline to the material generated by fieldwork. Curation should be an integral part of archaeological work rather than something carried out grudgingly or because law demands it. This chapter examines potential innovative endeavours (an unusual programme from Jordan to distribute Early Bronze Age tomb groups) and imaginative solutions, some of which may include revisiting past, often controversial, strategies for addressing the curation crisis.
