Because most Native American pottery we discover through excavations or surface collections is broken into small pieces called sherds, people often ask us “what can those pieces tell us?” As it turns out quite a lot!
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Cicadas and Locusts in the Manuscript Collection
The impending Brood X cicada invasion prompted a search of the Cincinnati History Library and Archives for cicada related items. Keep reading to see what they found!
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Cicadas and Locusts in the Cornelius J. Hauck Botanical Collection
As the eastern portion of the United States deals with the emergence of billions of Brood X cicadas with dread and loathing, other populations around the world welcome and celebrate their existence. Find out why in our latest Off the Shelf article.
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Flake-Stone Artifacts
Archaeology is complex, multifaceted and diverse. Items of material culture are no exception as a nearly countless suite of artifacts were manufactured by prehistoric native Americans through the addition, combination and subtraction of raw materials such as stone, clay, bone, shell, wood and plant fibers.
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The Fossil Fish That Could
On December 21, 2020, Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio Senate Bill No. 123 into law, thus designating Dunkleosteus terrelli as the Fossil Fish of Ohio. Not every state needs an official fossil fish, of course, but if you had to have one, Dunkleosteus (Dunk–ul–AHS–tee–us) might well be it, and no fish is more deserving when it comes to Ohio.
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Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde is a large National Park that includes around 600 cliff dwellings which are rock and adobe structures that are built into an eroded portion of a cliff with incredible indigenous architecture and amazing landscape.
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Digging Dinosaurs!
In order to dig dinosaurs, you must first really dig dinosaurs. That is, like them a lot, because the physical digging/excavating/collecting of dinosaurs is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a grueling, exhausting, painful exercise in self-denial – until such time as the precious fossils are finally secured in the museum collection or exhibit hall.
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The Official City of Cincinnati Fossil
The Cincinnati Dry Dredgers – a group of amateur paleontologists and geologists that have collected fossils and studied paleontology in the region for over 80 years – chose five candidates for the official Cincinnati fossil.
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Cincinnati’s Vanished Yellow Wares
Their yellow colors were bright and cheerful, a sharp contrast to their dull sanitary and kitchenware predecessors – redwares and stonewares. Nineteenth-century American yellow wares, earthenwares with a buff paste and a clear glaze, were both functional and inexpensive. In most cases, they were the product of an assembly line process – a system that attempted to standardize output using relatively cheap raw materials and labor.
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CMC’s COVID-19 Collecting Initiative
Early in the pandemic, we encouraged people to document how their lives had changed due to COVID-19. We weren’t sure what we would get but we all agreed we should put out an invitation to the community to share and record these unusual times.
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