My professor told me to always check the north wall first in a trench, and it saved us a week of digging.

We were excavating a site near Santa Fe, and after three days we had found nothing but plain soil. My old professor, Dr. Miller, always said, 'Start with the north wall, that's where they put the good stuff.' I finally listened and shifted our focus. On the north side, we uncovered a whole set of Puebloan pottery shards just 20 centimeters down. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice turn a dig around like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarmurray19d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, that "start with the north wall" thing sounds like total superstition. Tbh I've worked with guys who had weird rules like that, and it was always just their personal luck. Ngl, I'd have probably kept digging in the main area for another day just to prove a point. It's funny how one random find makes a whole story. Glad it worked out for you though, even if it was basically chance.

jana_hill2718d ago

Dr. Miller's advice is actually pretty sound. In a lot of Puebloan sites around the Southwest, the north wall of a room block gets less sun and stays cooler. They often used that space for storage, so you find more intact stuff there. It's not just luck, it's a pattern from how they built to use the environment. I've seen it hold true at a few sites in the Mesa Verde region too.