| Form of the Site Number | |
| State Site Number | Site Numbers are assigned by the Site Records Coordinator (phone 319-384-0735 & fax 319-384-0768) at the Office of the State Archaeologist in Iowa City, Iowa. The Site Number is a unique identification number assigned to an archaeological site in Iowa. It follows the Smithsonian trinomial system: 13XXnnnn, where 13 indicates Iowa, XX is the official county abbreviation, and nnnn is the site number, assigned in sequential order (from a separate number list for each county). |
| Example | 13JH311 signifies the 311th site in Johnson County to receive an Official Site Number. The Site Name of this example is Plum Grove in Iowa City. |
| Exception | Some sites cross county lines. Since the county abbreviation is present in the site number and since the numbers are assigned on a per-county basis, properly naming the site slightly deviates from the normal procedure. If the one archaeological site is located spatially in two (or more) counties, a Site Number assignment must be requested for each portion (i.e., A particular site was in both Appanoose and Davis Counties, so it received the numbers 13AN124 and 13DV105 for the corresponding portions. Two almost identical site forms are then filed differing only in the Site Number which is 13AN124/13DV105 on one and 13DV105/13AN124 on the other. |