This quarter I have been working with Museology and Archaeology departments in the Burke Museum. I have learned quite a bit about collections, worked with some very knowledgable and fun people, and broadened my laboratory experience.
The above pictures are of me and Jordan (another undergrad at UW) sorting level bag materials from a site in Alaska in the 60s and below I am organizing the level bags in boxes.
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| Organizing Level Bags |
Behind the Scenes night was on Wednesday the 20th. As the title suggests, it is a night where members of the museum get to go behind the scenes, and look at various collections and learn about research that goes on beyond the museum displays that can be seen daily by the public.
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My Station
discussing cat scans |
This was also an exciting experience for me because I not only worked in the Archaeology department talking about Nelly the 2000 year old mummy but got to tour other areas that I had not seen before.
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| Cat Scans & Bulb |
Some Info on Nelly:
She is from Egypt and died 2000 years ago when she was 19 years old.
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| Nelly's Coffin |
Her cat scans show poor restoration work done in the 60s. The bones above her waist were removed and water lilly bulbs were found inside her intestines. The bulbs are considered a symbol of rebirth and purposefully put there. Because her bones were removed they put an expanding foam inside her chest and stomach areas along with a road and chicken wire to support her body and prevent collapse. All of this can be observed in the cat scans that were done. You can also see some of the foam extruding from one of her eye sockets. This just shows what a poor job was done in the 60s. Adding to this neither of the feet that are currently with her body belong to her. Her feet fell off and they decided to put a male foot and a cast of a male foot with her body.
Some of the other areas that were open include ethnology, ornithology (birds), herbarium, ichthyology (fish), mammalogy, paleobotany, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology and entomology. Below are some pictures from some of these areas.
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| Dinosaur Bones |
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| Mammalogy |
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| Ornithology |
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Ethnology
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Ethnology
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| Ethnology |
At the beginning of this quarter I thought taking this laboratory class that combined museology and archaeology would be a good way to see if I would eventually want to pursue a job at a museum. I cant say that I have now found my life calling but I am glad to have been exposed to various professional and academic fields in museum work. I think my favorite part and the part that I would want to get more involved with is the community outreach and interaction aspect.
Here is a link to the Burke website for other information
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