| Now we have discussed labeling your artifacts we should discuss different methods of numbering sites so you can catalog your collection. The first method is the preferred method of many archaeological societies. This method uses the official site number for cataloging your artifacts. To obtain the official site number you first locate a site. Next go to the archaeological societies home page for your state. To locate your states archeological homepage go to the links page and look under your state. On many of the archeological societies homepages you will see a form for reporting a site. Fill the form out and submit it to the archeological society. Keep all artifacts in a separate container with the location of the site inside the container until the archeological society contacts you with the official site number. You then take this number and place it on all artifacts from that site. The number would look like . You then place the number one under the number. A one means that the artifact was a surface find. If the artifact was not a surface find then you would use a 2 or a 3. The advantages to this system is that it is a consistent method that is used across the state. The number on each artifact would mean the same thing to everyone who seen it and everyone would know where it came from. If you were to lose your documentation or notebooks that told you where the sites were located you could contact the archeological society and they could give you the location. The following is from the Pennsylvania Archeaology Society's Homepage: Instead of creating your own labeling system, private collectors are encouraged to participate in a state-wide site registration program known as the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey (PASS), maintained by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The importance of registering sites with PASS cannot be overstated. A modern development project that uses state or federal funding or assistance is required to take into consideration destructive effects the project will have on significant archaeological sites. In many cases only those sites registered with PASS may be deemed important enough to warrant investigation before development activities are allowed to proceed. When a site is recorded in this confidential file, a registration number is assigned and reported to the collector. The PASS site number can be used to label each artifact found at a recorded location. The State Museum of Pennsylvania uses the assigned PASS number over the number "1" to label surface finds from archaeological sites. Hence, artifacts found on the surface of the Strickler Farm site in Lancaster County, which bears the PASS registration number 36LA3, are labeled: The disadvantages to this method is that even though the number is standardized across the state, it may mean nothing to you. You would have to look up the number every time you wanted to see where an artifact came from. The other disadvantage is that not all states are as accommodating as Pennsylvania. Check the homepage for the archeological society of your state to see if they have any reporting methods. This is also a great place to check the federal and state laws. |
| Cataloging Method 1 |
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