Archaeological Records Submission
Frequently Asked Questions
Many questions often arise concerning archaeological records and the proper format for submission to the State of Utah Historic Preservation Office. Answers to some of the more frequent questions and issues can be found below.
Most of these items are recommendations or professional courtesies and not a requirement unless otherwise stated. If your question is not covered below please contact an Antiquities staff member. Many standards have been purposefully left in the hands of the land managing agency or at the discretion of the field archaeologist. If you find a conflicting standard or recommendation please contact us.
Archaeological Site Forms
- Please staple site forms together including photos. Photos detached from their site form are unacceptable. Please avoid paper clipping the record together as pieces often get lost.
- Site forms should not be bound as part of the report. Site forms should be included separately and be stapled.
- Encoding forms can be either paper clipped to the site form, or stapled to either the front or back of the site form. Since all encoding forms are removed from the record prior to archiving, encoding forms found stapled in the middle of the record are difficult to remove and often end up being torn.
- Printing your reports and site forms double-sided is acceptable and helps save space and trees.
- Within the smithsonian trinomial found on the site form, we do not require a six-digit expression of the numeric component. We prefer no extra zeros be added. For example 42KA111 is the preferred composition versus 42KA000111.
- Within the smithsonian trinomial, we have no requirement on the capitalization of the two letter county abbreviation. We do prefer that both letters be capitalized. For example, 42KA111 is the preferred composition versus 42Ka111.
- Please be sure all figures, especially maps, are clearly legible in your final print out. Figures often look great on the computer screen, but often print or copy poorly. These figures are often used to relocate resources and/or digitize from- please provide with this in mind.
- Unless State History does not have previous copies of the site forms, please do not include copies of site records obtained in your project’s original literature search as part of your report submission. Such site forms are simply recycled (securely) and are a waste.
- For standards concerning photographs in site forms please reference the original SHPO
photo compliance memo
- Please make any photo captions readable without having to remove the photo from the archival sleeve. Stacking photos back to back in a sleeve, with the captions hidden behind, is poor practice.
- Encoding forms for updated or revisited site forms are required, but only the updated fields need to be completed.
- We are willing to accept electronic data under certain circumstances. We always require a hard copy of both the report and site form for archiving. If you have a large project please contact a staff member about additionally providing shapefiles and/or electronic copies of submitted documents. We appreciate shapefiles for complex project or site boundaries (e.g. convoluted seismic lines).
Archaeological Project Reports
- Please staple your project cover sheet to your report. The cover sheet is a permanent archived addition to your report.
- Please do not include multiple title pages to your report. Multiple title pages, especially when printed on card stock, look great, but take up room and jam the copier.
- Printing your reports and site forms double sided is acceptable and helps save space and trees.
- Reports smaller than 1cm should not be bound. Please either secure with a binder clip or a heavy (but removable) staple. We remove the binding from such bound smaller reports and add them to our three ring binder filing system. Previously bound reports have an increased tendency to tear or jam the copier.
- Please be sure all figures, especially maps, are clearly legible in your final print out. Figures often look great on the computer screen, but often print or copy poorly. These figures are often used to relocate resources and/or digitize from- please provide with this in mind.
- Since an archaeological site excavation project permanently alters the site, an update to the site’s IMACS form is required as part of the final report.
- We are willing to accept electronic data under certain circumstances. We always require a hard copy of both the report and site form for archiving. If you have a large project please contact a staff member about additionally providing shapefiles and/or electronic copies of submitted documents. We appreciate shapefiles for complex project or site boundaries (e.g. convoluted seismic lines).