| Even though the above method is the preferred way to catalog you collection, I prefer a different system. I suggest that once you have found a site that you go and buy a topographical map for the area. You can find topographical maps at most map stores. If you do not have one in your area you can find a link in the supplies page where you can purchase them over the web. Check the supplies page for a list of websites where topographical maps may be purchased. Once you have purchased the map mark the top of the map with two letters as a designator. An example of this would be the map titled Kinton Fork would be marked with a KF at the top. If you already have a map marked KF then mark the top KFK. The letters are not as important as long as they are unique to that map. I do suggest that you keep the first letter of the designator and the first letter of the map the same. This is so you can keep the maps in alphabetical order and find the needed map easily. (If you find this confusing please read on). After you have labeled the top of the map locate the site on the map. Mark the site and label the site with a number. If the site is the first site on that map then label it 1. If it is the second or third site on the map then label it with a 2 or a 3. Now you are ready to label the artifacts from that site. The first part of the label would be marked with the maps designator letters and the last number would be the site number. Example artifacts found at the first site marked on the Kinton Fork map would be labeled KF1. The advantages to this system is that every time you look at an artifact withe a KF1 you automatically know that artifact came from the Kinton Fork map. You may forget exactly where the site is located, but you can pull the map and see exactly where it came from. You can also use the 1 under the number to identify that the artifact was a surface find. The other advantage to this system is that you have a map in front of you that has all of the sites in that area marked. As you look at the map you will start to see different areas of the map that you have not been, but has the same structure that is by every other site. Many times you can identify sites that you have not found by doing this. The disadvantage to this method is that it is not standard across the state. People would not be able to pick up an artifact that you labeled and know where it came from. You can also mark the official site number on the map next to the site. This way you could look at the map and obtain the official number for that site. You could also keep a notebook with all of your site numbers and their corresponding official site number. If this was too confusing to understand please let me know and I will try to clarify it. |
| Cataloging Method 2 |
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