The moccasins that Georgia Wheeler noted and photographed in 1940 became subjects of detailed technical analysis in the 1990s.

The woven tule mats she documented became some of the most important samples for radiocarbon dating.

The careful record of the burial’s context — the position of the body, the layering of the burial materials, the spatial relationship of the different elements — made it possible for later researchers to interpret what they were seeing with far more confidence than would otherwise have been possible.

That is what meticulous field documentation does: it creates a record that outlasts the moment, that continues to yield information as techniques improve and questions evolve.