I have cross-posted this to Histarch and Arch-L.
 
     I am working with a collection of historic ceramics at Fort
Niagara State Park (near Niagara Falls, New York (and Ontario)).
 
     Artifacts are excavated with three levels of provenience
control (listed in declining order of preference):
 
     1) 3 point plotting (exact x, y, and z)
     2) dry screen recovery (quarter in wire mesh)
     3) wet screen recovery (series of screens down to window
     screen)
 
Excavation followed natural stratigraphy but each soil level was
further controlled by excavating and recording in 1/10 of a foot
"arbitrary" levels.
 
     The above is background to my question...
 
     *****I am interested in accounts of how to handle Minimum
Vessel Counts (or M.V.C.s) when dealing with fragmentary
shards.*****
 
     The Fort Niagara collection has historic ceramic shards as
small as 0.125 inches which can be identified by ware type
(Chinese export porcelain, pearlware, etc.) and as small as c.
0.3 inches which can be identified roughly by form (plate, cup,
etc.).  (We have a very patient and tenacious site director and
laboratory staff.)
 
     Most of the analysis we would like to consider (e.g., status
questions) require M.V.C.s but problems arise:
 
     Attempts at mends are daunting.
 
     Limiting the M.V.C. consideration to rims or bases would
     eliminate over 95% of our data collection.
 
     Choosing to ignore screened artifacts (wet or dry or even
     both) seems too arbitrary a decision and again eliminates a
     large body of data.
 
Still, what we have seems unmanageable.  I would greatly
appreciate any suggestions on how to handle M.V.C. when working
with tiny shards.  I am especially interested in hearing from
people who have worked with shards of this size.
 
     If you made the decision to give up, that would interest me
also.
 
     I will re-post what I receive directly to my e-mail address
unless asked not to.  Thanks.
 
                    John O. Floyd
                    Anthropology Department
                    SUNY/University at Buffalo
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