Useful Documents and Forms

Below are policy statements and documents that that users of TARL's Records and Collections sections need to complete when desiring access for research or to acquire photographs.

Policy on Site Location Information (download PDF file 586k)
This document explains how TARL handles site location information.

Request for Access to Collections (download PDF file 75k)
This form should be completed when a research project indicates the need for a review of collections held by TARL. The Access to Collections Policy may be found in Section 10 of the excerpts from TARL's Collection Management Policy.

Request to Photograph Collections or Order Photographs (download PDF 137k)
This form is to be completed when one wishes to photograph items housed in the TARL collections or to request a photograph (digital or hard copy) from TARL. It goes in tandem with the following policy statement, which is to be read before the form is completed.

Policy for Photographing Items from TARL Collections and for Reproduction and Publication of Photographs (download PDF file 338k)
This document explains the policy relating to photography of TARL collections and use of TARL photographs; it explains the procedures necessary to set up a photographic session in TARL collections or to ask that a TARL photograph be reproduced.

Other Useful Documents

County Abbreviations (download PDF file 72k)
This page provides the 2- or 3-letter abbreviations for the county portion (the middle) of the trinomial site designation. The county abbreviation would be preceded by 41 (Texas was the 41st state alphabetically when the Smithsonian developed this system) and followed by the unique number for the site, to complete the trinomial.

State Trinomial Number Order and Postal Abbreviation (download PDF file 11.6k)
This page provides the official postal abbreviation for each state as well as the Smithsonian Trinomial Designation state number. The state order for the trinomial system was alphabetical when the system was adopted. Alaska and Hawaii became 49 and 50.

Trinomial Assignment Form (download PDF file 83k)
This is a slightly revised version of the old Request for Archeological Site Trinomial Numbers. While TARL no longer assigns trinomials without completed site data forms, this form can be submitted as a summary sheet accompanying the individual forms. It makes it easier to match up field numbers and trinomials and can speed up the processing of a trinomial request, particularly when there are a number of sites requiring trinomials.

TexSite Blank Site Data Form (download PDF file 381)
This is an expanded version of the blank TexSite form, which can be printed from the Utilities menu in that program. This expanded form follows the same layout, but has extra space for writing information. It may be used in the field when one is not entering site form data directly into TexSite. In which case, the information would be transferred into the digital form before a trinomial is requested.

Photographic Log (Field and Curation) (download PDF files, each 58k)
These pages are suggested formats for recording photographs. The entry for a frame can be longer than a single line; just keep wrapping the text in the 'Description' area (or whatever cell exceeds its boundary) and drop to the next line for the following entry.

Specimen Inventory Sheet (download PDF file 56k)
This is a suggested format for a specimen inventory page.

General Record Form (download PDF file 163k)
This form can be used to record level-by-level data during excavation.

Number Sheet (download PDF file 37k)
We have found this page to be quite useful in several areas where we must keep track of numbers used. At full size, it is an inventory page for our slide files. At a reduced 5x8-inch format it is an inventory page for our old print/negative photographic series; cut in half at this size and placed front and back, it is used at the beginning of each county in our Key Site Card files to keep track of site numbers used. It can be used to track the assignment of lot numbers, features, film rolls, etc. Handy!

Universal Data Form (download PDF file 345k)
This old form is still useful as a background grid for sketch maps, profiles, and artifact sketches.

Zero-99 Lines (download PDF file 33k)
A revision of an old form which we have used for number correlations; i.e., SMU "X" numbers to TARL trinomials. The sequential numbers on the left of each line are the reference number (SMU "X" number); we plug in the corollary number of another sequence in the following space (TARL trinomial) and add any written notations (project, site name, etc.). It has been modified so that one may extend the sequence beyond 99 by noting how many hundred should precede the sequence numbers.

Site Designations Before the Trinomial

Texas Quadrangle Grid System (download PDF file 12k)
Before the Smithsonian Trinomial designation system was in place, Texas used a site numbering system which divided the state into a grid of one-degree, latitude-by-longitude areas. Each of the one-degree areas was divided into four parts (A, B, C, D, labeled clockwise from the upper left corner), then each of the four lettered divisions was subdivided into 9 numbered quadrangles (1 - 9, labeled left to right and top to bottom and beginning the sequence in the upper left corner of the first A division). This was generally known as the Quadrangle system. The labeling of the quadrangles (preceded by a 41 for Texas and followed by a dash and a sequential number within each quad) provided the identity for each site. No attention was paid to county borders (as is done in the Smithsonian trinomial system).

Texas in Quads (download PDF file map 1,336k)
The sequence of one-degree areas began at the northwest edge of the panhandle and went from west to east to the edge of the state covered by that degree of latitude, then dropped south one degree, again numbering from west to east. This map also shows an even earlier numbering system employed by the UT Department of Anthropology, a division of the state into geographic regions. They are shown in color along with the one degree quadrangle numbers. Blue is North, pink is West, yellow is Central, gray is South, and peachy red is East. Site numbers would be NT-# for North Texas sites, WT-# for West Texas sites, etc. A corollary system was 1N-# to designate a collection from North Texas (a site could have several collection numbers), 1W-# for a West Texas collection... .