TIL I was scrubbing pottery sherds with a toothbrush like a madman for no reason

I spent about 2 years on a dig in New Mexico scrubbing every little piece of pottery I found with a toothbrush and water, thinking I was being thorough. Then last month a visiting archaeologist watched me for like 30 seconds and gently said 'you know we just dry brush these, right?' Turns out water can actually damage the surface details on some sherds. I felt like an idiot but at least I learned before I ruined anything important. Anyone else have a basic fieldwork habit they had to unlearn?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_zara16d ago

Oh man, the 'you know we just dry brush these' moment hits way too close to home. I had a similar thing happen when I was helping sort animal bones from a site and I was literally scrubbing them with a toothbrush too, like a total maniac. A grad student walks by and goes "uh, those are pretty fragile, you might be erasing cut marks." I felt my soul leave my body for a second. So yeah, I feel your pain on feeling like an idiot but honestly, better to learn from someone who knows than to keep wrecking stuff for years. I still cringe when I think about it though.

webb.val16d ago

I read somewhere that archaeologists sometimes use soft paintbrushes instead, @the_zara, which totally made me rethink my whole scrubbing approach.

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