Of course the Titanic is a site, defined as the location of human
activity.  My house is a site, too.  There are two operational
definitions we normally work with.  To be eligible for the National
Register a site has to be 50 years old or have major significance to
justify its eligibility.  In a parallel case, Central High School in LR,
the site of desegregation efforts in the 1950s and thus the first place
a US President decided to enforce Brown v. Board of Education, was put
on the NR before it was 50 years old.  The second definition really
comes down to what do we wish to give a site number to.  Unlike some
people, I figure we have plenty of numbers since they don't cost
anything (except of course the relevant paperwork and bytes). I am a
practicing archeologist, and if I'm willing to fill out the paperwork I
see absolutely no problem in giving something a site number just to make
sure it has a permanent record.  One day it will be 50 years old anyway.
And by the way, in Arkansas we also give site numbers to sites that
aren't there anymore, as when a site goes into the river.  Good to have
its former location on record for settlement pattern analysis.  And we
have a place to check on the site form to say the site data is
questionable or the site is destroyed, etc.  Bye.
 
Leslie C. Stewart-Abernathy
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Arkansas Tech University
Russellville, AR