B-U-R-K-E now on campus!

If you’re at Red Square on the UW campus anytime soon, you’ll notice a new installation of panels between Kane Hall and Odegaard Library.

These panels are part of a larger on-campus visual campaign for the Burke Museum that has been developed by the UW’s Visual Communication Design program. A senior in the design program, Jessica, proposed an exciting concept and developed a whole suite of materials to help promote the museum to UW students.

Here's a view of the panels from Red Square, spelling out B-U-R-K-E:

Here's a view of the panels from Memorial Way:


More pieces are being developed, including a brochure, buttons, t-shirts, and banners. Keep your eye out for these exciting new materials!

Q: What do I do if I find an artifact in the ground?

The Burke Museum partners with the Seattle PI's Big Blog to answer commonly asked questions about the natural and cultural history of our region. Read past entries from the Ask the Burke column here.

The following was posted to the Seattle PI's Ask the Burke column on Oct. 8.

Q: What do I do if I find an artifact in the ground?

A: Sometimes people accidentally find artifacts on their property when gardening or renovating homes. If this happens to you, your first step would be to record as much information as possible about where you found the artifact, including a sketch map showing depth and specific location on your property. Keep this information with the artifact--it adds to the research value of the item. If you live in Washington, contact the archaeology staff at the Burke Museum to inform them about your find. If you live outside Washington, contact the office of your state archaeologist.

Other times, people stumble upon an artifact on property other than their own (for example, a University of Washington freshman was working in a garden on campus last fall and accidentally found a 4,000 to 7,000 year old stone projectile point). In this case, you should leave the artifact where it is, because it is illegal to remove artifacts from land you do not own without a permit. The best approach is to record details about the artifact's location and physical appearance – if you have a camera with you, photograph the artifact in place and the area around it. If you are on private property that you do not own, inform the land owner of your find. If you are on public land (federal, state, or tribal), contact an archaeology specialist at a museum such as the Burke or your state archaeologist for advice about which land management agency should be notified of the find.

Finally, if you ever inadvertently come across human remains on your property or elsewhere, stop your activities in the area immediately and call 9-1-1. For a more detailed description of the laws pertaining to archaeological artifacts, visit this site.

Got more questions about archaeology? The annual Archaeology Day is this Sunday, October 17. Practicing local archaeologists will be at the museum all day to answer questions and talk to the public.


Photo: UW freshmen Ellen Van Wyk talks to Burke archaeologist Laura Phillips as they hold an artifact Van Wyk found in the ground.

National Fossil Day!

UPDATE: National Fossil Day is today! The galleries were busy this morning with families visiting the museum. Our educators had stations set up throughout the museum for kids to touch fossils and even practice digging for them. Here are some photos:

Posted 10/11/10:

This Wednesday is the first annual National Fossil Day, and in honor of this exciting occasion, read up on this small fossil that supports a big timeline of the history of Washington State: Murex sopenahensis (pictured above), is a type of rock snail fossil that can be found in the Burke Museum’s marine fossils collection. Although it is only 3 centimeters tall, this 40-million-year-old murex snail fossil provides evidence that the climate of Washington State was much warmer than it is today. Murex snails are carnivorous and only live in in subtropical seas; at the time this snail lived, the present location of Interstate 5 would have been beachfront! Murex snails would have lived in the Seattle area surrounded by palm trees and relatives of banana plants. However, as the world’s temperatures cooled, these tropical snails became extinct on Washington’s coastlines, leaving only their fossils behind.

Come learn more about paleontology at the Burke on Wednesday, Oct. 13 from 10 am – 4 pm and help us celebrate National Fossil Day! For event details, click here.

Posted by: Andrea Barber, Communications

Video: How does a new exhibit get installed at the museum?

The latest Burke exhibit Weaving Heritage: Textile Masterpieces from the Burke Collection opened on Saturday. It's a beautiful exhibition, artfully displaying 130 of the most aesthetically and culturally significant textiles from the museum's collection of over 2,000 textile pieces.

Some might wonder, what does it take to install a major exhibit like this? The day after the last exhibit closed, our exhibit prep team was hard at work preparing for Weaving Heritage. Take a look at this short video to see the transformation of the special exhibit gallery from an empty room to a complete museum exhibit:



Weaving Heritage is on view through February 27, 2011. Keep an eye on our website for a list of special weekend weaving demonstrations and other events.

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Q: Are there more big spiders now than usual?

The Burke Museum partners with the Seattle PI's Big Blog to answer commonly asked questions about the natural and cultural history of our region. Read past entries from the Ask the Burke column here.

The following was posted to the Seattle PI's Ask the Burke column on Oct. 1.

Q: Are there more big spiders now than usual? I seem to be constantly running into webs on my outdoor walks.

A: (From Rod Crawford, curator of arachnids at the Burke Museum)

This answer is specific to the Seattle area; different places have different spider species with different population cycles.

The spiders you're "running into" are mainly one species of non-native orbweaver: the "cross orbweaver" Araneus diadematus, which is native to Europe (first record of a cross orbweaver in Washington is 1927). Orbweavers are the spiders that make orb webs, and are the only spiders that do so. They are not dangerous to humans. The population dynamics of this one species are far from typical of all spiders. The vast majority of spiders actually "lay low" in August and September because of low moisture availability in their habitats.

So, are cross orbweavers more abundant this year than usual? Well, I've been working on spiders at the Burke Museum for 39 years now... and every single year I've had someone ask that question! They can't be more numerous every year than every other year, but populations do have ups and downs within individual neighborhoods. Beyond that, I think the biggest factor is that once your eyes begin to notice spiders (which are always common), you're naturally going to notice them everywhere.

To find the answers to more frequently asked questions about spiders, visit our Spider Myths website.