The Glenn A. Black research laboratory received a grant Sept. 21 that will help preserve Native American artifacts from a site called Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana.
The lab received the grant from the National Park Service, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Angel Mounds is Indiana’s largest ancient town — 99 acres in size, and with about 10 mounds, most designed for elevating structures,” said April Sievert, director and senior lecturer at the lab.
This grant is necessary to provide resources to store and study about 4,000 boxes of artifacts, some of which have been at the site since 1939, Sievert said.
“The grant will allow the lab to hire more people to rehouse the artifacts,” Bailey Foust, collections assistant, said.
The project is a large investment for the lab, and requires a great deal of staff and materials. The next steps include transporting the artifacts to the lab, and acquiring the resources to study the artifacts.
The Glenn A. Black Laboratory, located at 423 N. Fess Ave., is not only an IU research center, but a museum, collection center, gallery, library and archive space with over 5 million archeological artifacts. The lab also brings in researchers, provides professors with materials for classes and tours and teaches archaeology classes.
The lab will be working on the “Curating Angel” project for the next three years, which will be overseen by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. Curating Angel is an exciting and significant step for the lab, Foust said.
“Many of the artifacts are in need of re-housing since they are still in their bags from the field,” Foust said.
The first excavations at Angel Mounds were done in 1930 by Glenn Black, but the artifacts were left at Angel Mounds and placed in brown paper bags. When Black died in 1964, the Glenn A. Black Laboratory, partially funded by Eli Lilly, came into being, with the help of the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Department of Conservation. The lab’s goal was to curate and study archaeological collections and continue research.
Now, the artifacts will be transported to a new climate-controlled library facility at the lab.
“This is the first step in moving some of the Angel Collection to the Auxiliary Library Facility 3 , and reconfiguring the lab for new research,” Sievert said.
With the organization from the Curating Angel project, the lab can provide new exhibits and education about the history of this site.
“It addresses dire curation needs, while allowing us to finally find out what’s in the collection after all these years,” Sievert said.
