1948

Stamp: Archaeological Institute of America seal

Printed: ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA

Printed: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Printed: OFFICE OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / UNIVERSITY MUSEUM / UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA / PHILADELPHIA 4, PA.

Handwritten: copy

27 October, 1948Dear Fro:

I feel tremendously virtuous in writing you my second letter in a week: correspondence is not one of my strong points.

When I see you again I will have various suggestions to make with regard to this and other digs. One matter which is both reasonably urgent and, I hope, easy to settle has come up in an urgent form, so I am passing it on to you now.

John Young has written Joe Last asking for the final copies of the plans of the stadium, to be sent to him in Baltimore. There is nothing in his letter to indicate that this has been cleared with Mr. Hill. This involves a serious question of basic expedition policy, which should, I think be clarified.

Mr. Hill always maintained that the basic archaeological records of the expedition should be treated with the utmost care. Original plans and original excavation notebooks were not to leave the site except under the most unusual circumstances. I approve of this view 100%. Since the war the enforcement seems to have broken down to some extent, probably because of the precedent of original records with us in which were presumably safer than Cyprus. Original plans, in particular, have been taken by individual members of the expedition places which were presumably safer than Cyprus. Original plans, in particular, have been taken by individual members of the expedition without leaving a record of what was taken, and some have been lost.

After discussing the whole question with Joe Last, I would like to establish a fixed policy with regard to irreplaceable records, to apply not only here but to any expedition which maintains a fixed field headquarters and keeps its records in the field.

1. All original expedition records will remain at the field headquarters as long as they are likely to be needed there. They will be shipped to the museum when no longer needed there. They may not be removed from the field headquarters without the written permission of the field director, and a record will be kept of who took what and when, the record to be initialled by the taker. In general this permission should be given only when it is absolutely essential, and provided there is a reasonable guarantee that the records will be protected.

2. All excavation films will be numbered, original and final plans, and excavation notebooks will be made of them and kept up to date, one copy at the field headquarters and another at the museum.