Lost in the Collections: A Bioarchaeology Internship at the Smithsonian

During the spring of 2020 I spent three months working at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as a Bioarchaeology Collections Intern. I was working with floral, faunal and human remains from archaeological and paleontological sites from all around the world. The primary task was to conduct a survey of the collections. Literally, “what do we even have?” So while sometimes I was assisting with cleaning or rehousing specimens, the bulk of my time was spent with a clipboard in hand, going from cabinet to cabinet, recording what was inside. There are millions of artifacts in the collections, of which only a small fraction are housed in conditions considered acceptable by modern standards. Old wooden shelving units and boxes release gases, old chemical treatments corrode artifacts, and sometimes portions of a collection are not where they’re supposed to be.

The collections are an endless maze. Six huge pods containing multiple floors, each floor a sea of cabinets and shelving units as far as the eye can see. Dinosaur bones, animal remains, other artifacts from archaeological sites. Human remains as well, which are theoretically supposed to be housed separately. I saw assemblages from neolithic sites in the Middle East, Neanderthal bones, Solutrean spear points, and more. I also saw many artifacts in a horrendous state of curation. Glass vials - once filled with soil samples - shattered at the bottom of a drawer, their contents now mixed together amidst the glass shards and artifacts. Plastic bags of bones stuffed to the point of explosion labelled “HUMAN?” in big red sharpie.

The Shanidar Cave collection was most exciting to me. Shanidar Cave is a world-famous neanderthal site, known for its controversial “flower burial”. Located in northern Iraq, the site contains thousands of animal bones, neanderthal bones, stone tools, and other artifacts. Two photographed above include a neanderthal rib bone, and a turtle shell (from a turtle consumed by a neanderthal).

The wet collections are amazing. Weird fish species caught and collected by Teddy Roosevelt, all sorts of strange embalmed sea critters.