The Cincinnati Art Museum, which holds important collections of prehistoric North American artifacts, will deaccession these materials in 1989. The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History (CMNH) has agreed to accept responsibility for them, and support from the National Science Foundation will assist in this process. Appropriate storage cases to house the collection and computer hardware to aid in its recataloguing will be purchased. Because of the magnitude of the project, addition staff will be hired. These actions will insure that the collection is properly stored and made available to the research community. The collection is important because it is essentially regional in nature and consists of archaeological objects from southwestern Ohio and the middle Ohio Valley, as well as complete ceramic vessels from Arkansas. Rare engraved shell objects from eastern Tennessee are also included. The collection spans the gamut of prehistory in eastern North America and contains a significant group of proto-historic objects. Thus, it documents the rise of complex Native American societies and shows the effect of contact between these groups and European cultures. It is useful to archaeologists interested in North American prehistory and the effects of culture contact and change. Archaeological collections such as this one serve to document America's past and stand as important archaeological data. To realize their potential, however, they must be preserved and made available to researchers. This project is essential because it will make such materials available for scientific study.
