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That field school critique about my trowel grip turned my digging around
During my second week at the Sutton Hoo field school last summer, the site director stopped me and said I was holding my trowel like a dinner knife, scraping instead of slicing. He showed me to grip it lower and use my wrist more. After I changed that, my cuts got cleaner and I stopped breaking so many fragile pot sherds. Has anyone else gotten a basic tool tip that totally shifted how you work on site?
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caseyw121mo ago
... because I always thought the whole trowel grip thing was just old school archaeologists being dramatic about something that didn't really matter. I figured as long as you got the dirt off, who cares how you hold it? But then I had a similar thing happen at a site in Montana last year, and honestly it changed everything for me too. I was breaking so many pieces of bone, and my cuts were all jagged and messy. After I switched to using my wrist more and holding it lower, everything got way cleaner and I stopped feeling like a clumsy idiot every time I hit something hard. It's wild how such a small change makes you look at something you've been doing for years and realize you were basically doing it wrong the whole time.
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fiona_scott441mo ago
@caseyw12 I get why you'd say that, but I still think there's some truth to the old school stuff. I've been digging in the Southwest for 15 years now, and I've seen way too many people ruin good artifacts with bad trowel technique. One guy at a site near Santa Fe broke three points in one afternoon using that loose grip you're describing. Sure, switching your hold helps, but those experienced folks were right about basics like keeping your wrist locked too. It's not just about being dramatic, it's about not smashing things that can't be replaced.
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