Labeling Locations of Found Artifacts?

[SwampHunter]

For several years I have put arrowheads in bags and wrote the location code on the bag. I have several hundred points and I want to display them but would still like to keep the history of where they were found. What is the easiest way to record the locations without defacing the points? I was thinking a copier would work well. What does everyone else do?

 

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[River Rat]

I just make mine plain and simple...for each shadow box, I labeled accordingly. All artifacts found @ Tickfaw River in one box, my property (south pasture, river finds; north pasture, river finds)...those found in TX in another case. Working on a case with my finds from late 2010 to present will be labeled as "'10-'11 , south pasture, river finds".

 

[tmodel]

not sure how i am going to display my artifactsi use a piece of tape that i can wright on date a few letters that will till me where on back side of artifact not best or display side, use ledger book to record this tag and and any other things you want to keep. i use the old stile white medical tape. see how many different ways you get and pick out the one for you or come up with your on. Terry

 

[joshuaream]

A tiny bit of ink with county & state never hurt any relic. I've seen too many great artifacts with no history, don't let it die with you!

I've also seen frames and shadow boxes be emptied of rocks to be used for something else.

 

[Cachefind09]

I use my digital camera and just take a picture of the finds after each hunt and put the pictures into a folder for each site. The dates are recorded for each hunt and the times are recorded when taking an insitu. It might take some time to go back and search through all the photos when trying to remember where a certain piece came from but it beats writing on each piece. I personally think writing on points with ink ruins them.

 

[old digger]

If you are not afraid to mark on one side (least presentable), mark it in small but readable numbers in code, and reference it on a sheet of paper or a medium ledger book. Just mark the point with a number code, then in your ledger enter the code, followed by when and where it was found. If you don't want to mark on the artifact, put a small sticky tab (rectangle or round, like what they put prices on at garage sales) with your number code. You can get those little sticky tabs at Office Depot or even WalMart.

 

[ouachitacaveman]

If you choose to mark each artifact, you
can paint the least presentable side with a small dob
of white-out - correction fluid. After that dries, you
can then write your code in ink onto the white-out spot.
These spots can then be wiped
off at any time in the future if you like.

( I also like the scan-copy machine idea )

 

[Treefrog]

I do it all electronically, a pic of each (jpg) with a ruler, and put into a folder on my computer with the name of location and saved in a folder named the date I found it.
I can then pull up all pics from any particular site and show in an instant what all has came from there. I have several backups and can also use these to get replacement prices in case
I ever have to turn in theft on my homeowners ins. I plan to put a small sd chip into each shadowbox with all the info and pics that came from that site including any not in that box. I also put pics of the site and pics of each display case too.
Tree

 

[dognose]

My sites and finds are labeled using the below computerized method:
Sites are recorded primarily by site number, and name.
The Site Number can be up to ten characters in length, and is a required unique field for every record.
Professions often use the following:
Two digit numeric field representing the state in which the site is located. The two digits are a alphabetic sort on the state. Example IN (Indiana) = 12
Two character county abbreviation.
Six digit numeric field, starting at one and incrementing for the next site in the county.
[purchases are under a category labeled "purchases"]

This is a variation of the Smithsonian Numbering System. The Smithsonian Numbering System is actually the alphabetical list of states prior to Alaska and Hawaii (excluding the district of Columbia). So Florida 13, Georgia 14, etc. Indiana would be 12.
After the state representation, a two character county abbreviation followed by an incremental number, which is the number of sites recorded. The end numbers like the 4 in 8LE4 are assigned in order or recording within the county. So, 8LE4 = fourth site recorded in Leon County, Florida.

A relic number can be used to uniquely identify a single relic, or a group of relics found the same day at the same site.

The relic number field, in the Site Find tab form of the Site tabbed notebook, is used to enter a categorizing value, which smaller than the site number and date, can be wrote on the relics from the site. This allow those relics found together on a particular day to be 'batched' together.

With many small relics, it is almost impossible to write the site, date found, county and initials upon it. A six character, unique value can supplement this.

1 Using a four character field, with the first two characters alphabetic and the last four characters numeric, a user can start at AA97 indicating first batch of 1997. This gives you a total of 576 unique values for relic during the year.

Using this method AC98 would indicate the third batch of 1998, BA98 would indicate the 25th batch of 1998. AA98,AB98, AC98, AD98, AE98, AF, 98 ........... AZ98, BA98 ect.

2 Alternatively you can use the entire four digit year. for example AA2004 for the first finds of 2004. This option is better if you are spanning many years and is more clear to others.


The relic number then is written on the relic using a fine mechanical pencil, then the label is covered with clear fingernail polish. The polish needs to dry for a number of hours. In the frame, the label should be up as if the label is in contact with foam for a number of months and not cured well, the foam may stick to the nail polish.

See http://winrelic.com/winrelic.htm