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Gleaning Processual Data from Materials Analysis of Museum Collections: The Harvard University Peabody Museulm's Mecklenburg Collection and Social Evolution in Late Rehistoric Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

Michael N. Geseilwitz
Michael N. Geseilwitz*
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Peabody Museum Cambridge, MA 02138
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Extract

In recent years the research potential of museum collections has come to be more widely recognized by anthropologists [1]. There are a number of factors that account for a turn from collecting “primary” data towards an approach based on reevaluating material remains collected by another. Prehistoric archaeologists have often led the way in artifactual analysis because the physical artifact is our only means of reconstructing past lifeways. Although sane have argued that this limitation in our range of data does not limit the possibilities of ultimate reconstruction [2], nevertheless it is with the artifact that we must begin.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 123: Symposium L – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology I , 1988 , 205
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1988

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References

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