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Curriculum Vitae
Victoria E. Luksha M.A.
6525 E State Road 46
Bloomington, IN 47401
Cell: (503) 951 - 8505
Email: luksha.v.e@gmail.com
Education:
June 2011: Masters of Art in Anthropology - University Of Montana
Topic: Paraffin: An Economic and Ecological Alternative in Bone Conservation
June 2005: Bachelor Degree in Science - Portland State University
Major – Anthropology, Emphasis on Biological Anthropology
December 2002: Associate Degree in Science – Portland Community College
Focus – Anthropology, Biology, Earth Science
Training:
Apprentice Gunsmith (current) – taught by Larry Barber, Ph.D. Bloomington IN
X-Ray Florescence (XRF) – Attended training seminar given by Lee Drake Ph.D., Sr.
Applications Scientist, Bruker Elemental at the Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana
University. April 7th and 8th, 2014.
Current Project:
Article:
Summarizing the project I completed as the firearm conservator /research assistant at
the MMWC. It will be a journal article that provides an account of the process, procedures,
methodology, and results of the project.
Blog:
Cooking perspectives and recipes focused on creating healthy food that is free of dairy
(i.e. milk, cream, butter) http://substitutefordairy.blogspot.com/
Books:
In editing stages of a book with cards deck; additionally, in the midst of two novels.

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Professional Experience:
- September 2010 to June 2011 – Research Assistant
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Assisting in the creation of an International Site Form with correlating database for a survey
project in Egypt and Crete; writing an annotated bibliography for the Cretan aspect of the
project headed by Kelly Dixon Ph.D. and Ph.D. candidate M. Timmons.
- September 2009 to September 2010 - Artifact Conservator
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Artifact Conservator of Garnet Site 24GN540 for Kelly Dixon Ph.D. and Ph.D. candidate M.
Timmons. Evaluated all organic materials, suggested treatments and storage, applied treatment
and worked with curator on long term storage stabilization / archiving. Provided detailed
reports for all treatments performed. University of Montana, Missoula Historic Archaeological
Laboratory
- June 2009 to September 2010 - Artifact Conservator
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Artifact Conservator of Coloma Site 24MO172 for Kelly Dixon Ph.D. and Ph.D. candidate M.
Timmons. Evaluated and checked in artifacts as they came in from the field, applied immediate
treatment to artifacts in need, recommended treatment, applied treatment to organic materials,
provided detailed reports of treatments performed. University of Montana, Missoula Historic
Archaeological Laboratory.
- October 2008 to May 2009 - Historic Laboratory Assistant
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Cleaning, cataloguing / archiving, and advising conservation treatment of artifacts for Coloma
site, Feature 131 for graduate student Margaret Thurlo, University of Montana, Missoula.
- September 2001 to May 2002 - Physical Laboratory Assistant
Supervisor: Lyle Hubbard Jr. Ph.D. hunthub@open.org
Laboratory assistant to Dr. Lyle Hubbard. Responsible for organizing and labeling extensive

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human and faunal remains collection at Portland Community College.
Research / Volunteer Experience:
- Firearm Conservator / Research Assistant
Supervisor: Judith Sylvester, Conservator jlsylves@indiana.edu
Currently, I am cleaning, stabilizing, and rehousing the firearms collection at the Mathers
Museum of World Cultures. I am cleaning, stabilizing, and rehousing the firearms collection.
This included researching the historical context of each firearm and synthesizing that
information into catalogue reports, creating written records of my actions, sketches of important
markers, and a photolog that includes before, during and after photos. Overall, the firearms are
subjected to appropriate levels of disassembly, cleaning and oiling, wrapping in muslin, and
returned to storage. Foam cut-outs used for damaged firearms. A journal article is in the works
summarizing this project.
A presentation titled, “The Challenge of Firearms for Institutions: Their Evolution,
Conditions, and Hidden Wonders.” that summarized the general evolution of firearms, the
current status of the project at the Mathers Museum, including some highlights, was given at
the MRCG Conference, Sept. 22, 2012.
The first project I worked on for the MMWC was to reorganize, shelve, and rehouse the
Greist Collection. The Griest Collection contains over 3,000 artifacts. This included creating
coroplast boxes and internal dividers that matched the needs of each individual box, and
comparing the catalogue to the physical representation of each box in the collection boxes 1-25.
The second part of the collection consisted in creating boxes for items previously stored on
trays, creating appropriate dividers for each box, and recording their new location. Reports
were generated for each collection. Greist - 9/2011 – 5/2012; Firearms Project – 5/2012 –
3/2015.
- Object Conservator
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
On call to address any issues with the archival storage, or any of the on-going archaeological
projects; called upon for evaluation of artifact from older collections or new artifacts from
current projects; advising and/or involved in safe handling and storage of fragile items. 2010-
2011

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- Laboratory Supply Coordinator
Supervisor: Kelly Dixon Ph.D. kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Archival and laboratory supply coordination and ordering for University of Montana, Missoula
Historic Archaeological Laboratory, 2009 - 2010.
- Historic Archaeological Laboratory Assistant
Supervisor: Justin Moschelle M.A. Student
Cataloguing and cleaning artifacts from Big Timber site for graduate student archaeologist
Justin Moschelle at University of Montana, Missoula. 2008
- Excavation Assistant
Supervisor: Alison Stenger Ph.D.
Excavator at The Van Valkenberg Site with the Woodburn Paleoarchaeological Project for
Archaeologist Alison Stenger Ph.D. 2005
- Zooarchaeological Laboratory Assistant
Supervisor: Virginia Butler Ph.D. butlerv@pdx.edu
Responsibilities included labeling and sorting zooarchaeological material at Portland State
University, 2005.
- Laboratory Collections Organizer
Supervisor: William Wihr Ph.D. wwihr@pcc.edu
Organizing the anthropology laboratory collection at Portland Community College 2001.
- Co-Author
Mary Courtis Ph.D. mcourtis@pcc.edu
Co-wrote the manual, "Sound Attunement Therapy" with Dr. Mary Courtis, Chair of the Dept.
of Anthropology Portland Community College, 2000-2001. This was an instructional manual to
accompany a CD. Our contribution was a detailed piece on the native people of Burkina Faso,
West Africa.

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Presentations, Publications, and Conferences:
- Published: “The AK – 55: The Forgotten Evolution of the Automat Kalashnikov 1947g”
published online at Hubpages: http://luksha.hubpages.com/hub/The-AK-55-The-First-
Hungarian-AK-47. This article briefly outlined the evolution of Soviet Army firearms post
WWII, up to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In particular, it focused on a stage of the AK
that has been greatly underscored, and depicted how to identify this form.
- Presented: Midwest Regional Conservator’s Guild, September 22, in Bloomington,
Indiana, 2012. “The Challenge of Firearms for Institutions: Their Basic Functions, Conditions,
and Hidden Wonders.” This presentation displayed the basic timeline of historic firearm
technological advances, and showed the current survey and conservation being done on the
firearms collection housed at the William Hammond Mathers Museum.
- Attended: 62nd Annual Meeting for the American Center for Research in Egypt, March
31st, in Chicago, Illinois, 2011.
- Attended: 61st Annual Meeting for the American Center for Research in Egypt, April
28th, in Oakland, California, 2010.
- Poster for 75th Anniversary Meeting of the Society of American Anthropology, April
16th, in St. Louis, Missouri, 2010: “The Preliminary Test of the Effects of Paraffin for Preservation
of Bone.” This poster illustrated the preliminary investigation of paraffin as a preservative for
bone. It displayed the first stages of the research, and the next stages of that experiment. Also, it
contained a chemical breakdown and description of paraffin as a saturated hydrocarbon.
- Presentation for Montana Archaeology Month, April 8th, in Missoula, Montana, 2010:
“Archaeological Conservation.” This presentation described the process, tools, and chemicals
involved in conservation, as well as, a brief description of the agents of decay using the case
studies of Coloma 24MO172 and Garnet 24GN540.
Reports:
- Master List, Griest Collection, William Hammond Mathers Museum, 2011-2012
This report was a document of the remaining Griest Collection, considered the
Griest TYPE Collection boxes 30-72. It included where each artifact was housed,
including the location within the storage container, notated duplicate numbers,
artifacts without numbers, artifacts missing from the registrar’s list, and
inaccurately numbered artifacts. Temporary box catalogues were generated from

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the master list.
- Incident and Inconsistency Report, Griest Collection, William Hammond Mathers
Museum. 2011
This report catalogued the issues between the physical items in storage boxes 1-
25 of the Griest Collection. It contained lists of misplaced artifacts, incorrectly
numbered artifacts, and additional artifacts that were not on the storage
container diagram. Also noted on the report were artifact tags that were
incomplete, inaccurate, and / or duplicate numbers.
- Leather Processing Report, Coloma Ghost Town 24MO172 and Garnet Ghost Town
24GN540, 2009.
This report documented the preservation treatment applied to leather artifacts
from these sites. It was submitted to the project head and the curator.
- Textile Treatment for Garnet Site 24GN540, 2009.
This report documented the preservation treatment applied to textile artifacts
from this site. It was submitted to the project head and the curator.
- Textile Treatment for Coloma Site 24MO172, 2009
This report documented the preservation treatment applied to textile artifacts
from this site. It was submitted to the project head and the curator.
Academic and Work References:
Judith Sylvester – (812) 855 – 3392 - jlsylves@indiana.edu
Conservator, Mathers Museum, 601 E. 8th St, Bloomington IN 47408
Kelly Dixon PhD – (612) 247 - 6414 – kelly.dixon@mso.umt.edu
Associate Professor of Historic Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University
of Montana, Missoula, MT.
Lyle Hubbard Jr PhD (Home) (503) 623 – 5962 hunthub@open.org
Adjunct Professor of Biology and Forensic Anthropology, Department of Anthropology
and Department of Biology, Portland Community College, Portland, OR

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Virginia Butler PhD – butlerv@pdx.edu
Associate Professor of Zooarchaeology, Department of Anthropology, Portland State
University, Portland, OR
Areas of Interest:
Writing: Technical and Creative, Firearm Stabilization and Preservation, Active
Conservation Approaches for Organic Materials, Laboratory Methodology, Biological
Anthropology, Wolf’s Law, Martial Arts, Fracture and Occupational patterns, Military History,
Medieval Japan, Medieval Iceland, Demography, and Warfare.
Memberships:
- Midwest Regional Conservator’s Guild 2011-2012
- American Research Center in Egypt 2010, 2011
- Montana Anthropology Student Association 2010-2011
- Society of American Archaeology 2010