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Update: The careless cataloging at that Maya pyramid site undermines every discovery
During the recent season at Caracol, volunteers mislabeled dozens of ceramic fragments due to inadequate training. Now, associating those pieces with specific ritual contexts is nearly impossible, wasting years of fieldwork. How can we justify cutting corners on documentation when it erodes the very facts we seek to uncover?
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wyatt1343h ago
In last year's Journal of Field Archaeology, a paper detailed the long-term costs of poor artifact tracking at Copán. Researchers wasted years reconciling databases because early teams used inconsistent numbering systems. Your Caracol example shows how one season's negligence can invalidate decades of fieldwork. Adopting barcodes and mandatory photo logs is now a basic requirement, not some advanced technique. We must prioritize training volunteers to document meticulously from the first day on site. The artifact's context is what gives it meaning, and sloppy recording destroys that forever.
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the_jennifer1h ago
But what happens when the barcode system itself fails or is misapplied? @paulc91 mentions digitization, but I've seen databases corrupted or labels faded in the field. The core issue isn't just tools, it's instilling a sense of URGENCY and respect for the process in every volunteer. Over-reliance on tech can make people complacent, thinking the machine will catch their mistakes. We need rigorous mentoring alongside any system, or we're just creating new ways to lose data. True documentation starts with understanding WHY context matters, not just how to scan a barcode.
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