Research :: ARCHAEOLOGY LABORATORY :: Collections

The archaeology collections include approximately 4 million items of Native and Euro-American manufacture. Primarily from New York, these collections and associated documentation were acquired through 150 years of field research and donations. Together, these artifacts and data document 13,000 years of human history in the state.

These collections continue to expand due to donations and staff research. Pre-European collections come from every county in the state, but are particularly strong in materials from the Mohawk-Schoharie drainage. Since 1965, a growing amount of material of historical Euro-American origin has been added to the collections as a result of fieldwork by the in-house Cultural Resource Survey Program staff, representing 17th through early 20th century New York colonial and post-colonial history. The acquisition in 2005 of the South Street Seaport Museum's archaeology collection of materials from lower Manhattan sites more than doubled the historical archaeology holdings. These materials, together with extensive collections excavated in and around Albany, have resulted in the largest collection of Dutch colonial archaeological materials in North America.