This Saturday (January 7) is Artifact ID Day at the Burke Museum (UW campus at 17th Avenue NE and NE 45th Street) from 1:00PM – 3:30PM. A perennial favorite among diggers of dirt and collectors of cultural objects. From the Burke:
Artifact ID Day is your opportunity to access this knowledge and find out more about that intriguing object that’s been sitting on your bookshelf ever since Aunt Jane brought it back from her trip to the Far East. Past Artifact ID Days have uncovered such rare items as a 5,000-year-old stone tool, a twined basketry doll made by a Tlingit weaver, and a drinking cup made from a walrus’ tusk. What do you have?
The Burke is prepared to provide information about Native American, Pacific Island, Asian and Southeast Asian, baskets, blankets, and cultural artifacts as well as archaeological materials, fossils, rocks, minerals and bones. No appraisals will be given.
Artifact ID Day is included in museum admission and is free for Burke members. They ask that you bring in a limit of three items per visitor due to the event’s popularity.
And whatever you do, don’t bring in a head from a Malibu Barbie even if you’re convinced that it’s ‘conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man two million years ago.’
Aw, nice to see the silvery heads of Bill and Marty Holm inspecting someone’s blanket! If you have a Native American artifact (particularly of Alaska, western Canada, and the Pacific NW), you couldn’t find a better resource to tell you more about it.