[teej]

You need physical access to the items to perform tests on them to understand where they come from and what they're made of. You also fund the further study of these objects by renting/selling pieces of the collection to museums, curators, and collectors.

[funthree]

If we use imaging equipment we can somehow learn more by using more spatial reasoning. Then you can make more.

[jdmichal]

Part of any modern archeological dig is documenting the original location of every artifact. From the article:

> ... the three-dimensional location of every last bead photographed and recorded.