Raymond Dausman wrote:
 
>I am looking for a suggestion for a good software package
>that specializes in cataloging historical artifacts. I would
>also like to find a source for a package called SURFER. Has
>anybody used SURFER and if so, how does it work for you? I
>would appreciate your comments.
 
I haven't worked much with artifact cataloging programs but I have used
SURFER rather intensively over the last 6 years, both the MS-DOS and the
newer Windows versions. The Windows version is far easier to use and more
capable than the earlier DOS versions. This program creates a grid from
your original data and creates isolines (contours) from the calculated grid
values. In other words, you enter the actual Z values (such as elevation)
which you collected at points of known position. The software than creates
a rectangular gird large enough to encompass all you data points and
calculates Z values for each grid intersection. The contour lines are then
calculated based on the Z values of the grid intersections rather than the
actual values you collected. Because the software does not honor you
original data points, a certain amount of "softening" of the data occurs,
i.e. you lose you high and low values. For the average archaeological topo
contour map or artifact distribution map, this is quite acceptable. In
addition, you can specify the distance between grid intersections and the
contour intervals and the program has several options for calculating the
grid values to improve accuracy.
        A more serious shortcoming of the software, both old and new
versions, is it's limit of seven significant digits for each value entered.
Again, if you are using coordinates from a small grid established over a
site, this should be no problem. However, much of my data includes UTM or
State Plane coordinates requiring at least 8 significant digits, e.g. an
easting value of 13,840,546.34. SURFER rounds off larger values such as
this, thus degrading the accuracy of the data. This limitation can also be
worked around, but the explanation is too long to include here. The DOS
versions of SURFER were also limited in the number of data points you could
enter (14,400 points for the last DOS version) while the Windows version
has no such limits. Again, this is not usually a problem for archaeological
data, although I routinely have files containing tens or hundreds of
thousands of data points. Generally, for archaeological purposes, SURFER
serves quite well. Although my applications for surfer tend to push its
capabilities to the limit and beyond, I have still found it very useful. I
hope some of this has been helpful.
 
Steve Hoyt
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