State Recreation Areas Arbitrary Investigation 1979-1985

State Recreation Areas Arbitrary Investigation 1979–1985 is comprised of numerous small investigations. All materials had been stored in the same AAL box, and the associated documentation did not clarify which artifacts or accession numbers were from different projects. The only known investigations in this collection were identified using the AAL project numbers 79FR11 and 79IA6, which were identified on a box list supplied by AAL. It is believed that these two project numbers are related and that 79FR11 was the field reconnaissance and 79IA6 was the intensive assessment. Several other, possibly unrelated, investigations, identified by AAL project numbers, accession numbers, and site numbers were found in the same box as these investigations. All the investigations were kept together as an arbitrary collection, because the related archives did not convey how the various investigations were related and if they should be separated. Not all the investigations in the box had associated archives. The archival collection titled Archaeological Field Reconnaissance and Intensive Assessment at State Recreation Areas 1979 includes site survey records, catalog records, and reports with information about 79FR2A, 79FR2B, 79FR11, and 79IA6. None of the other AAL project numbers identified during artifact processing where found in the archival collection. According to C. Keller, curator at AAL (personal communication 2012), the first two numbers in an AAL Project Number stand for the year the project was performed, the two letters stand for what type of project it was (FR would be field reconnaissance), and the last number is a unique number assigned to the project.

The investigation also included material that was donated to AAL by David Swartz. The donated artifacts were kept with this investigation because they were found in the same box, although there was no mention of this material in any of the associated archives. Because an association could not be made with another investigation, the VCP determined that it was better to process this material as part of this investigation as opposed to creating a small, unique project for the material.

The digital materials in this collection were processed by the Veterans Curation Program (VCP), and include the artifact database, artifact report, and select artifact photographs. Additional digital materials held by the VCP include additional artifact photographs and box labels. For additional information on these materials, refer to the Finding Aid.