On Wed, 26 Oct 1994, Mark E. Landon wrote:
 
> Subject:  Pot excavation
>
>
> Computer?  Video camera?  You're kidding, right?  Look,
> here's what you do:  take the sherds out of the ground.
> Put them all in a basket.  Take them indoors.  Clean them
> off.  Spread them out on a table and put them back
> together.  Proven effective by centuries of experience on
> millions of pots from all over the world.  No competent
> potmender will need each fragment individually labeled,
> much less plotted on a computer.  Hi-tech is not always
> the answer.
 
But....
        what if you didn't have immidiate access to the materials?
        what if you were doing research on those sherds, but were perhaps
unable to to get to them and physically handle them?
        what if (god forbid) you went to get the sherds, and they had
been misplaced?
        What if you wanted to refer back to artifacts from a previous
dig, but didn't want to have to sort through boxes of materials?
        High tech is indeed not the always the answer.  It is an OPTION.
I can see lots of options for plotting and storing digital computer
images of sherds (or other artifacts) on computer.  Its alot easier to
send a disk to a researcher than the artifact itself.  The point is low
tech works, and if you have the funds and materials, so does high tech.
DOn't scoff at something just because its seems new or even difficult.
 
oh, and BTW, I know some competent pot menders who do mark each and every
piece. :>
-John "grumpy with a cold" Buckler
 
 
A whole wide world,                     John Buckler
an endless Universe,                    University of Maryland, College Park
Yet we keep looking                     [log in to unmask]
through the eyeglass in reverse.
-Neal Peart