| Now that you have a collection of artifacts one of the most important thing that you need to do is catalog the collection. There are many reasons why you should catalog your collection and benefits that it brings. The first and most obvious reason for cataloging your collection is so you will remember where everything came from. This also lets you know what has came out of a site. As your collection grows it becomes harder to remember where everything has came from. You will find that only artifacts that have an impact on you will be remembered. When you are showing your collection to friends and family those are the only points you will remember or have a story to go along with it. If you catalog your collection you will be able to remember where every artifact came from and it will help you remember the stories that are associated with that artifact Another reason that is less obvious is that if you catalog your collection well with the use of a topographical map (discussed later), you may be able to identify unlocated sites. As you start to mark your maps with different sites you may see a pattern. I have located many sites because after I started marking the map a specific area stood out. When I checked out the area there was I site that I had not known about before. Another reason for keeping a good catalog of your artifacts is for insurance reasons. There are many uncertainties in this life. By keeping a good catalog, records, and pictures if problems happen and you need to claim your collection to the insurance company. If something this unfortunate happens to you, at least you will have all the documentation you will need for the insurance claim. The final reason for keeping every artifact you find cataloged. By keeping pieces of artifacts from a site in the same container and cataloged you may be able to piece together broken artifacts. I usually have one to two artifacts a year that I piece back together. One of the nicest projectile point I put back together I found the bottom one year, and the top two years later. |
| Cataloging your Collection |
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