Community members flocked to the University’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History on Saturday to have fossils, rocks and artifacts identified by experts at the museum’s 21st annual Identification Day.
Paleontologists, archeologists, geologists, conservationists and appraisers in beading, basketry, textiles and antiques all lent their expertise.
“We want all of our museum specialists to be available to the community,” said Ann Craig, assistant director of education at the museum. “We want (the experts) to be able to identify people’s objects that they don’t know much about. We also want to educate people about how to take care of their things.”
Lily Price, who came to Identification Day with several fossils, found out one was a fern that was fossilized 200 million years ago. She also possessed several fossilized teeth of prehistoric horses, deer and elk and pieces of a mastodon tusk.
“We’ve had (these items) in our collection,” Price said. “My husband loves to collect fossils, and these are just a few of them.”
Edward Davis, the fossil collection manager at the museum, said most of the fossils he saw on Saturday came from the Eugene formation, or bedrock, that underlies most of Eugene and Springfield.
“In fact, a lot of the campus is built on the Eugene formation, which means we have a lot of fossils from the Eugene formation that comes from campus excavations,” Davis said. “We’ve got fossils from when they built the EMU, the underground science lab, the library and Cascade Hall. We also have a lot of fossils from when they made Lane Community College.”
Craig said Identification Day aimed to educate the community about the fact that it’s illegal to take artifacts from public lands. Artifacts are defined as anything made, modified or transported by people. However, it is legal to pick up natural fossils and rocks.
“The purpose of what we’re trying to communicate is that we don’t want people to just pick up anything, because it’s an archeologist’s job to do that and to infer what something is based on the site,” Craig said.
Community members showed up with a variety of artifacts, including lithographs, copper pots, textiles and baskets.
“I have kept several things from my ancestors that other people would think means nothing, but to me, they tell a story,” museum tour guide and textile specialist Hattie Mae Nixon said as she was analyzing a worn rug.
Lane County Historical Society Director Bob Hart participated in Identification Day as an antiques expert.
“I think, at these Identification Days, we sometimes wind up with more questions than answers,” Hart said. “We all have expertise, but it’s limited sometimes. Depending on an object, we’re able to learn more than (we) tell because of the variety of objects. I don’t think anyone is leaving knowing less than when they come in, though.”
The museum also aims to teach Identification Day visitors about taking care of their artifacts with basic conservation.
“Conservation is really about preserving people’s memories in the material,” museum conservationist Chris White said. “Our job is to stop the normal physical deterioration process. We’re just here to help people figure out what they have and to help them keep it around for another generation.”
[email protected]