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My anthro professor in Tucson told me the pottery shard in my hand was 1,100 years old and I almost believed her
She made us sit with a Hohokam sherd from a site near the Santa Cruz and guess its age from the temper and paint before she'd reveal anything. Turns out my confident guess was off by 400 years, but she said the wrong answer taught me more than the right one would have, has anyone else had a prof who graded the reasoning over the result?
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the_andrew21h ago
My archaeology prof did something close to that with old stone tools. We had to describe how we'd figure out the age before we gave a number, and half the class froze up because they just wanted to shout a guess. I once said a scraper was about 5,000 years old with total confidence. It was closer to 9,000, so I basically invented a whole new timeline in front of everyone. She still gave me points for the method though, which felt generous at the time but looking back it was the right call. Guessing right by luck does not teach you much, but the reasoning sticks with you longer.
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