So this guy at the dig site in New Mexico last year kept calling every piece of pottery 'a ritual object'

3 comments

3 Comments

It's the easy way out when you don't know the real use. Label it a ritual object and you're done. Saves a lot of actual work.

fox.mila1mo ago

Remember my friend's weird bronze thing they called a ritual butter knife.

-1

dylan231mo ago

Yeah, the "ritual object" label is a classic move. Hall.ruby nailed it, it's the easy answer when you hit a wall. I've seen people call a weird bronze hook a "ceremonial belt hanger" when it was probably just a broken tool handle. You gotta look at the wear marks. If that "butter knife" has a rounded, polished edge from scraping, it might have been for spreading wax or clay, not butter.