Official State Site Number
Both professional archaeologists and private citizens may submit an archaeological site form. To get an official number, the site form must be completed, along with accompanying maps. Site File staff work with the individual, researcher, or CRM company to ensure that all information is filled out properly. Official State Site Numbers are assigned only by Site File personnel. The site number utilizes the Smithsonian Trinomial System, meaning that the first number in the Official State Site Number is the number of the state (Georgia) as it appears alphabetically in a list of the contiguous 48 U.S. states. For Georgia this number is nine (9). The state number is followed by a two letter abbreviation for the county in which the site was found. A complete list of county abbreviations can be found in the Online Documents Section of our web page with the computer database codes. The final number is the actual site number, which is assigned to sites in the order in which they are found in a given county. Using this system, the first site in Bartow County, Georgia, (the Etowah Mounds) would be 9BR1. To the extent possible a published site number will be retained as the official site number.
Official State Site Form
A site form records information about the location of the site, including coordinates, elevation, topography, and vegetation. The form also records information about the cultural periods and phases during which a site was occupied. (For example, 9BR1, the Etowah mounds, would be associated with the Mississippian culture period because of its association with chiefdoms and the building of large platform mounds. It would be associated with the Etowah phase because Etowah Complicated Stamped pottery is found there). In addition, the form documents who recorded the site, when it was recorded, and lists whatever reports may have been written about the site.
Site forms must be submitted on acid-free paper and must be double-sided, single page forms. If these requirements are not met the site forms will be returned with no official number assigned. Site forms produced on computer should closely resemble the Official State Site Form. Official State Site Numbers will be changed only under the most extreme circumstances. To document a site as archaeological, the site must be at least 50 years old and follow the Georgia Council of Professional Archaeologist standards and guidelines for archaeological work, available here.