Tbh my professor told me to ignore a certain type of pottery shard at my dig site in New Mexico, but I kept one and it turned out to be from a previously unknown trade route.

Honestly, I found this weird, glazed piece that didn't match the local stuff, sent a photo to a specialist on a whim, and now they're dating it to the 14th century, so has anyone else had a hunch about a 'nothing' find that changed the whole project?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlie_fisher453mo ago

Ever been told to just bag and tag the plain stuff? I had a supervisor call a weird bone fragment "modern trash." Felt off, so I cleaned it up after hours. Turns out it was a carved tool from a way earlier layer than we thought. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut over the field manual.

fisher.diana3mo ago

That glazed shard in New Mexico is a perfect example. Makes you wonder how many other sites have a single weird piece everyone was told to ignore.

kim.sandra20d ago

Are you sure it was a glaze though? I remember reading about that site a few years back and the report I saw said that weird shard was actually a natural formation that looked like glaze because of mineral deposits. Not saying the person who found it was wrong or anything, but sometimes those "glazed" pieces turn out to be something totally different after lab testing. Still agree that stuff gets written off too fast though.