UGA's Roberts Thompson receives Society for American Archeology Award

University of Georgia faculty member Amanda Roberts Thompson has been selected to receive the 2025 Award for Excellence in Curation and Collections Management from the Society of American Archeology. The 2025 SAA awards will be presented April 25 at the SAA 90th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

This Award for Excellence in Curation and Collections Management is given annually to recognize excellence in curation and collections management: including advances in collections intake, documentation (including data basing), maintenance, conservation, and/or accessibility. Candidates may include individuals employed by institutions that have advanced the curation and management of archaeological collections during recovery in the field or during acquisition, documentation, maintenance, conservation, and/or use within a repository.

Roberts Thompson, Director of Laboratory of Archaeology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of anthropology, serves as Managing Director of UGA's NAGPRA Program. Passed in 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) requires institutions receiving federal funds to return ancestors and certain Native American cultural items to descendants and affiliated tribal nations.

"I am incredibly honored to receive the SAA Award for Excellence in Curation and Collections Management. Ensuring the thoughtful care, documentation, and accessibility of cultural heritage at the University of Georgia is a responsibility I hold with the utmost respect," Thompson said. "This recognition affirms the importance of working with Tribal Nations and other descendant communities to preserve these cultural objects and the stories they tell for future generations. This work plays a crucial role in the implementation of NAGPRA, ensuring the proper stewardship and repatriation of Ancestors and their belongings. I am deeply grateful to my staff, students, colleagues and Tribal Nation partners whose support and collaboration have been instrumental in this journey."

UGA is one of three main repositories for archaeological cultural objects that fall under the purview of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the lab also curates collections for the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Navy.

Image: Amanda Roberts Thompson