Provenance and a Wyoming Ultrathin Knife Form

Figure One - Side A of four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land in 

Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

The provenance of a prehistoric artifact is just as important as the artifact itself, maybe more so. A prehistoric artifact without the detailed information about its discovery is just a pretty rock. A pretty rock might bring good money at a collectors’ auction, but without the who, what, when, where, and how; it means very little from a historical perspective. I believe that as a collector, I am responsible for documenting my prehistoric artifacts and fossils to the best of my ability. Every artifact in my collection is cataloged with as much detail as I have, such as material type, artifact type, county, state, my site description, section, township, range, finder, length, width, and in many cases, GPS coordinates.

Figure Two – Profile view of a four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land in Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection.

I started cataloging my finds on index cards when I was a very young pup in Wyoming and I have done so for the thousands of artifacts I have found or acquired in the past sixty years. I learned at an early age that memory was never a good substitute for ink. When I became a middle-aged dog, I transferred all the information from the hundreds of index cards I had accumulated to a database file where I the entire collection is now documented. Wherever my complete collection ends up, the database and my journals go with it. The next curator of my collection will have every known detail for every artifact in my collection. Documentation is the only true scientific and historical value to any prehistoric artifact collection.

Figure Three - Side B of a four-inch-long ultrathin knife form surface found on private land 

in Fremont County, Wyoming in 1904. John Bradford Branney Collection.   

As an example, I acquired this four-inch-long paleo ultrathin knife form for my collection (figures one through three). I was interested in this artifact because its provenance was more than complete and the artifact was found in an area of interest. The ultrathin knife form came with a specific and precise handwritten provenance and it is up to me to ensure the artifact and its history remain intact beyond my mortal life. Many times I have seen beautiful artifacts without accurate and complete provenances.  

The finder of this ultrathin knife form surface found this artifact in 1904 in Fremont County, Wyoming. It impressed me that after a hundred or so years this artifact had its original provenance documented. The knife form's provenance is so clear and concise that today I could walk right up to the discovery location 121 years later. Someday, I just might do that.

The artifact is aesthetically beautiful, don’t you think? But its true value is within its provenance. It is up to me to pass along the information to the artifact's next curator.           

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