Cynthia Klink
Many students and faculty are unaware of the Anthropology Department's Repository for Archaeological and Ethnographic Collections (RAEC) or are uninformed of its purpose, functions and the diverse activities that take place through it. I want to share this information with those of you who have not heard of the RAEC or have walked past the door and wondered what really goes on inside NH1110.
What is the Repository
The Repository serves the local Santa Barbara region and adjacent counties as a curation facility for archaeological and ethnographic collections. These collections not only include the physical objects or artifacts themselves, but also extensive records documenting their recovery and analysis, including fieldforms and journals, lab analyses, artifact inventories, photographs, maps, and reports.
The majority of the collections in the RAEC are the result of UCSB faculty and student research at archaeological sites in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and the Channel Islands. The RAEC also houses private collections donated by individuals or organizations, including several ethnographic collections of materials obtained from native peoples in North America (California, the Southwest, the Northwest), Oceania, and portions of Central and South America. A significant portion of our collections also derive from Cultural Resource Management projects and are owned by state and federal agencies.
Several other types of collections are maintained by the RAEC, such as comparative or reference collections of faunal skeletons, marine shells, and rocks and minerals. As well, there is a manuscript collection of unpublished or difficult to find archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic research reports from Santa Barbara and southern California. In addition, teaching collections with representative examples, replicas, and/or slides of various types of prehistoric and historic artifacts, and archaeological features are maintained.
The Department of Anthropology provides for the curation of these collections for their continuing research, educational and heritage values. The RAEC functions to safeguard these cultural resources from physical damage and loss of collection integrity and makes them available to qualified individuals for study, exhibition, or educational purposes.
I am also proud to report that the results of a recent federally mandated survey of curation facilities across the nation indicate that the RAEC's curation standards and facility organization are among the highest in the nation.
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