Improved Storage for Human Remains, Associated Grave Goods, and Objects from Sacred Contexts

FAIN: PG-287783-22

Virginia Department of Historic Resources (Richmond, VA 23221-2470)
Elizabeth Moore (Project Director: January 2022 to October 2024)

The purchase of mobile racks to store human remains and associated burial objects in the Virginia Museum of History and Culture’s newly expanded storage repository.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR), the State Historic Preservation Office, serves as the repository for an estimated six million objects in the archaeological collections. DHR staff cares for partial or fragmentary physical remains of at least 350 individual human beings, the objects interred with these individuals, and objects associated with sacred or ceremonial contexts. DHR recently added 7,000 square feet to the collections storage space and is in the process of improving that space to safely store our growing collections. Two new areas have been identified for the respectful housing of human remains and associated objects, spaces that will be designed in consultation with Tribal and other descendant communities. This project proposal requests funds for mobile racks that will allow us to move this collection and organize the new space in a way that meets the needs of our consulting communities.