Creating an Online Catalog of the Cerros Archaeological Collection

FAIN: PW-51116-12

University of Florida (Gainesville, FL 32611-0001)
Susan Milbrath (Project Director: July 2011 to September 2014)

Cataloging and creating digital images of archaeological artifacts and associated excavation records from the early Maya site of Cerros in Belize leading to a searchable database, accessible through the Internet.

The Florida Museum recently received a substantial collection from Cerros, an important Maya site in Belize excavated in the the 1970s in a project led by David Freidel. Cerros, best known from its Late Preclassic settlement (350 BCE-CE 150), has a significant Terminal Classic occupations (CE 850-1150) and a smaller Late Postclassic component (CE 1300-1550). The government of Belize transferred this collection permanently to the Florida Museum in exchange for proper curation and broad access for research. The collection came to the museum with field catalogues, a variety of whole pots and reconstructed ceramics, ceramic sherd type collections and entire units of excavated ceramic sherds, and a range of other archaeological materials. The Cerros Research Online Catalogue will allow broad access to field catalogues and dissertations, ceramic type collections, whole and reconstructed vessels and "small finds" that include deposits of lithics, jade, metalwork, and worked shell and bone.

Associated Products

Online Catalog of the Cerros Archaeological Collection from Belize (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Online Catalog of the Cerros Archaeological Collection from Belize
Author: Susan Milbrath and Debra Walker
Abstract: The Florida Museum of Natural History's Website Database for the Maya archaeological collection from Cerro Maya (Cerros) allows researchers to search by various categories including provenience, special context (burial or cache), structure number, kind of artifact and chronology. The digitized catalogues include 10 field logs that include over 18,500 individual artifact entries, and materials catalogues drawn from the general catalogues, but organized by the type of materials: bone, botanical, ceramics and clay, chipped and ground stone, polished stone, shell, plaster, modern artifacts, and miscellaneous catalogues. The website has digitized database files of over 200,000 artifacts and photographs of small finds (objects catalogued individually rather than in lots) and sherds representing a total number of 108 ceramic types from the site. In addition, a gallery of 3D images includes examples of ceramics, polished stone, modified bone, and metalwork that can be rotated using a cursor, mouse, or touch screen. The website also offers links to documents relating to Cerro Maya: a ceramic type list, a structure and excavation correlation, a small finds catalogue, a bibliography related to Cerro Maya, a table of ceramic phases and maps of the site.. .
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/cerros/
Access Model: open access

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