| | Abstract: | The collection documents the discovery, investigation, and prolonged authenticity debate surrounding the Tucson Artifacts (also known as the Silverbell Road artifacts or Lead Crosses), a group of lead objects — crosses, swords, spears, and related items bearing Latin and Hebrew inscriptions — excavated near Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, between 1924 and 1927. Materials include correspondence, reports, statements, typescripts, transcriptions, illustrations, maps, assay certificates, newspaper clippings, publications, and miscellaneous notes drawn from the files of the Arizona State Museum and other sources. Principal figures represented include Byron Cummings, Emil W. Haury, Raymond H. Thompson, A. E. Douglass, Thomas W. Bent, Charles E. Manier, Neil M. Judd, and numerous other scholars and correspondents. The collection incorporates materials previously held as Archives A-054, A-055, A-191, A-192, and A-193. | |
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