I was brushing off pottery shards too hard for years

I was working on a site in New Mexico last fall, cleaning what I thought was just another plainware sherd. My professor walked over and quietly said, 'You're scrubbing away the story.' She pointed out the faintest black lines I'd missed, which were actually carbon residue from where the pot sat in a fire. I was using a stiff brush and water, thinking I needed to get it 'clean,' but I was erasing the very evidence of how it was used. Now I start with a soft dry brush and really look at the surface under a magnifier before anything touches water. That one comment changed my whole field cleaning routine. What's the most basic thing you had to unlearn when you started digging?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_murphy151mo ago

Oh man, my big unlearn was speed. I used to treat every trowel scrape like a race, trying to get down to the next layer as fast as possible. My supervisor finally told me I was moving more dirt than a gopher and probably wrecking the context. Had to learn that slow is smooth and smooth is fast, as they say. Felt pretty silly for a while there.

charlie2691mo ago

Ha, that reminds me of the time I almost troweled right through a tiny bead.