What happens to artifacts recovered from an archaeological excavation?

The sad truth is that, after a time, when room runs out in storage, old artifacts not deemed important, take a one-way trip to the dumpster in many cases. When the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus moved from the Ohio State campus to its present location, thousands of artifacts were thrown into the dumpsters on site of the renovation of the museum from a historical society museum into the Fine Arts Building. Several dumpsters were filled with arrowheads, stone axes, pottery shards and numerous other items.