Veterans, some with brain injuries, curate neglected Army archaeological collection

Steve sez, "Brain-injured vets are curating a huge, neglected archeological collection from Army Corps of Engineers:"

The collection dates to the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building dozens of locks, dams and reservoirs, and the ground beneath them was excavated for archaeological treasures.

Prehistoric and historic pottery, stone tools, arrowheads, Indian beads, necklaces, earrings and ear spools, and ceremonial artifacts, even human remains, were collected. The items then sat in boxes and paper bags in university museums as well as private basements, garages and tool sheds.

In recent weeks, U.S. veterans - many with traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder - have begun processing, cataloguing, digitizing and archiving the collection as part of a one-year $3.5 million project, funded with federal stimulus money.

US military vets working on archaeological project (Thanks, Steve!)

(Image: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Photo by David Knoerlein)

• [nathan]

  “Of the 50,508 non-mortally wounded soldiers in OIF/OEF there are at least 10,000 serious injuries such as brain injuries, spinal and amputations, according to DOD sources…September 2005, estimate of 20% serious brain injuries, 6% amputees and 24% other serious injuries.”

  (The Long-term Costs of Providing Veterans Medical Care and Disability Benefits, 2007)

  To find out more facts about the effects of war check out http://www.thefrontlines.com

• [zyodei]

  For the first time ever, we see a useful product of the Iraq war.

  Hail the triumph! Huzzahs all around! We have produced a cadre of curators for our army corps of engineers museum! A smashing success!

• [rAMPANTiDIOCY]

  funny. i thought everyone with brain injuries just worked for the army corps of engineers.

  • [Cowicide]

    buh-dump… tissss…..

• [JoshP]

  Archaeology is really money intensive and this is really cool. I was amazed when I worked in a lab how much really neat stuff is warehoused, it just sits. And as far as money. Think how much you get payed at a desk job, then take some of that training and put a shovel in your hand and go stand out in a corn field for ten hours in august. Then imagine how much you have to pay one field technician.
  As an aside, during the heyday of moneyed government programs, TVA and etc, they flooded huge tracts of land. These lands were usually the fertile littoral areas where settlement was most popular. Thus, thousands of possible sites are right under skiers feet. But, water is a far better preservative than natural soil erosion, air and oxidation. So it’s kinda a tradeoff. In a hundred years or so our grand-archaeologists are gonna be diving these sites with modern equipment and doing really neat things.
  Given of course no Zombie Apocalypse.

• [michaelpmason]

  If you read between the lines, this article is also about the military trying to find vocational options for the more than 360,000 servicemembers who have returned from OIF/OEF with a brain injury.

• [Anonymous]

  I think archeologists should always be required to put everything back when they are done copying it.

  But then, I get pissed off when my wife leaves the cap off the toothpaste.

  Kudos to the Armed Forces for giving servicemen something better to do than killing people, and for finding work for people they’ve put in harm’s way in the past.

• [Jardine]

  Oh, so these are the people who take care of the stargate.

• [Marja]

  #3,

  Back in front of the bulldozers? 99% or so of archaeology is salvage work.

• [Bellanatrix]

  I’m amazed that anyone would make any jokes about traumatic brain injury. It is one of the most misunderstood injuries and is known as the silent disease.
  You cannot fathom how frustrating and difficult it can be to live with a TBI. I am one of those people.
  Do any of you also make jokes about amputees as well?

  • [Cowicide]

    Do any of you also make jokes about amputees as well?

    A man with no arms walked up to a bar and asked for a beer.

    The bartender shoved the foaming glass in front of him.

    “Look,” said the customer, “I have no arms – would you please hold the glass up to my mouth?”

    “Sure,” said the bartender, and he did.

    “Now,” said the customer, “I wonder if you’d be so kind as to get my handkerchief out of my pocket and wipe the foam off my mouth.”

    “Certainly.” And it was done.

    “If,” said the armless man, “you’d reach in my right hand pants pocket, you’ll find the money for the beer.”

    The bartender got it.

    “You’ve been very kind,” said the customer. “Just one thing more. Where is the men’s room?”

    “Out the door,” said the bartender, “turn left, walk two blocks, and there’s one in a filling station on the corner.”

  • [Cowicide]

    I’m amazed that anyone would make any jokes about traumatic brain injury. It is one of the most misunderstood injuries and is known as the silent disease.
    You cannot fathom how frustrating and difficult it can be to live with a TBI. I am one of those people.

    I’m sorry you’ve gone through a difficult experience and I do hope you are on a path to recovery for your TBI. I also think the joke from rAMPANTiDIOCY was unfunny and that’s why I gave my sarcastic reply to it (with drums). That said, this is the internet and filled with tons of people you cannot see or hear, for all we know rAMPANTiDIOCY is in a wheelchair or is someone who has had a TBI themselves and can fathom it quite well. In other words, try to lighten up a little.