With National Science Foundation support, the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College will conserve its important Old World archaeology collection. It will renovate existing space to create a clean, secure and environmentally stable storage and research area. The collection will be inventoried and reorganized to make it accessible for modern research methods. New conservationally sound storage cabinets will be purchased to house the collections and the extensive original documentation will be preserved through archival processing and duplication. A guide to documentation will be prepared to enable researchers to make full use of the resource. The collection consists of Old World archaeological material systematically assembled as instructional material for the teaching of archaeology to students of Beloit College. It includes over 90,000 individual specimens of stone and bone tools and faunal remains representing 152 sites in 10 European and North African countries. A wide range of time - in excess of one million years - is represented and it constitutes a valuable scientific resource. Of special significance are European Upper Paleolithic materials for these include art objects which document the emergence of modern human culture. Because of the way they have been curated, these specimens are in danger of deterioration and it is difficult for scientists to study them. With NSF funds the materials will be securely housed and made maximally available for research.
