Archaeological Curation

The Webb Museum provides permanent curation for archaeological contract projects conducted within Kentucky, student thesis/dissertation or professional research projects, or other research involving archaeological excavation. Museum curation standards must be met before projects will be accepted. A one time curation fee is applied to all non-Federal contract archaeology projects, the schedule for which can be found in our curation guidelines (link below). Curation fees are waived for student projects. For all other types of projects please contact the Museum directly.

Effective July 1, 2020, the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology will be lifting its moratorium on the accession of new materials for permanent curation.  Please be advised that the document outlining the Museum's requirements for collections preparation, Standards for the Preparation of Archaeological Specimens and Documents for Curation at the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology, has been updated and can be found at the link below along with all the required forms.  Any collections for projects concluded after January 1, 2020 will be subject to these new guidelines; any effort to apply these new standards to past projects is appreciated, however, we do understand budgetary restrictions.  At current, the fee schedule remains the same but is subject to revision at the discretion of the Museum.

Please contact the Curator, Lisa Guerre, with any inquiries and to coordinate transfer of custody of collections.

To curate collections with the Webb Museum:

• Standards for the Preparation of Archaeological Specimens and Documents for Curation at the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology
• Curation Forms
• Historic Artifact Discard Policy (established by the Kentucky Heritage Council/State Historic Preservation Office)