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That dig leader told me to stop brushing so much. He was right.
I was on a site near Flagstaff last summer, working on a Puebloan trash midden. I spent like 2 hours carefully brushing away every grain of dirt from a pot sherd. The lead archaeologist, Dr. Mendez, told me to "stop overcleaning" and just bag it with the surrounding soil for lab analysis. I argued it would ruin the context. Turns out he was right. The lab found pollen and microfauna in the soil sample that told way more than the sherd itself did. Has anyone else been told to work faster on a dig only to realize the fast way was better?
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west.claire8h ago
Doesn't that happen everywhere though? I feel like we're all trained to think slower, more careful work is always better, but sometimes the fast, messy approach catches stuff you'd miss. Like when I'm cleaning garage junk, I used to scrub each piece separate, but now I just bag the whole pile and sort it later. Way more bugs, dirt, and weird stains survive that way for the lab people to find. It's a weird lesson but it sticks.
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finleyfox6h ago
Bag the whole pile? That's wild. I'd be terrified of losing something tiny forever.
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