The program curates over 4000 cubic feet of world class archaeobiological collections. These collections boast some of the earliest examples of domesticated plants and animals in the Old and New Worlds, as well as important archaeobiological collections from early hunter-gatherer to early urban societies around the world. We are also building on the strengths of this unparalleled collection through the targeted acquisition of new collections from other museums and from ongoing archaeological investigations in which archaeobiology researchers take an active role.
The program also maintains a database of NMNH Archaeobiology Collections (PDF, Excel, Abbreviations), which helps us promote awareness of and use of these collections by a global community of researchers.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) houses superb faunal and botanical reference collections, including:
- Phytoliths from more than 2000 species of modern plants, from the Neotropics, as well as specimens from lake sediment cores and numerous archaeology sites located in the tropics of Central and South America.
- Starch Grains from more than 500 species of modern plants primarily from the Neotropics and southwest Asia and specimens from archaeological sites located in Panama, Mexico, and Colombia.
- Lake core sediments, archaeological sediments from the Neotropics.
- A variety of ground stone tools from Panama that yielded phytolith and starch grain evidence for plants that formed parts of prehistoric diets.
- Numerous modern plant specimens comprising important economic and ecological species as well as the near wild relatives of domesticated species (e.g., maize, teosinte, wild and domesticated squashes, roots such as manioc, yams, cocoyam, arrowroot).
In addition, the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Systematic Biology's Vertebrate Zoology Program houses over 5 million mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish specimens, providing exceptional resources and comparative collections.
For more information, please visit the Vertebrate Zoology web pages:
Division of
Mammals
Division of Birds
Division of Amphibians and
Reptiles
Division of Fishes
