Not for everyone obviously

But for those of us whose research interests run in such directions...

The Sonoma Historical Artifact Research Database (SHARD 8-))--a mid-19th to early 20th century artifact cataloging system.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:HISTARCH@ASU.EDU] On Behalf Of Adrian
> Praetzellis
> Sent: Wednesday, 4 February 2009 1:08 PM
> To: HISTARCH@ASU.EDU
> Subject: New artifact cataloging program - SHARD
>
> *SHARD, *our artifact cataloging program, has just been posted.
>
> http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/shard>
> Download it free, gratis, and for nothing, and start happy cataloging
> today!
>
> *SHARD* provides a consistent and (mostly) idiot‐proof system of pull-down
> menus to catalog artifacts/artefacts from mid‐19th to early‐20th‐century
> archaeological sites and to create data tables that facilitate comparison.
>
> Although we at ASC have been excavating urban sites since the 1970s, the
> impetus to create *SHARD* came from a series of hugely productive
> archaeological projects in the 1990s and early 2000s sponsored by the
> California Department of Transportation. These massive San Francisco Bay
> Area undertakings required a whole new way of recording and tabulating the
> nearly 1,000,000 individual items recovered from the excavations.
>
> Bootleg versions of ASC's heretofore unnamed cataloging system have been
> circulating on the archaeological underground for several years. It has
> taken quite some time and a whole lot of volunteer effort to get to the
> point of releasing this definitive edition of *SHARD* to the archaeological
> community. Kind comments and suggestions are welcome. However, this has
> been
> a labor of love so we're really not that interested in hearing how you
> would
> have done it oh so much better if only we'd thought to ask.
>
> *SHARD* is built on *MS Office Access 2003*, so you'll need that program to
> run it. Everyone is free to use, reproduce, and adapt it to best suits
> their
> needs. *SHARD* was created by archaeologists Erica Gibson and Mary
> Praetzellis; Bryan Much helped with database design in Access. The Manual
> was written by Erica Gibson.
>
> Regards,
>
> Adrian Praetzellis
>
> Sonoma State University
>
> California, USA
>
> Adrian DOT Praetzellis AT Sonoma DOT edu
>