When I used to think 'stratigraphy' meant just digging deeper like a kid on the beach

For years I was just scraping layers with no method (like I was hunting for treasure in a sandbox), then I finally watched a site supervisor in Arizona carefully trowel each horizon after I accidentally mixed up a pottery sherd from two different eras. What's the goofiest thing you thought was standard practice before you learned better?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo23819d ago

OH man, I absolutely did the SAME thing with water! My first dig in Colorado I saw a lady using a mister and I thought she was a genius for bringing some kind of professional water tool. So I started pouring water from my canteen all over my unit to "bring out the layers." My trowel just turned everything into slop. My supervisor walked by, stared at the mud pit I created, and just said "are you making adobe bricks?" without even stopping. Felt like a total fool.

nora1019d ago

...and that's exactly why I used to think you were supposed to wet the dirt before you troweled it. I watched a guy on a dig in New Mexico and he was using a spray bottle to mist his square, and I thought "oh, that's the secret, you gotta keep it damp so you can see the color changes better." So for a whole season I would literally soak my unit every morning like I was watering a houseplant. Turned out he was just trying to keep the dust down because he had allergies. I pretty much turned my profile wall into a mudslide. My supervisor finally just handed me a dry brush and told me to stop making soup.