Always thought old pottery was just broken trash until I saw a dig in person

I used to walk past shards on hikes thinking they were nothing, but last month a volunteer at a site in New Mexico showed me how a single rim piece can date a whole settlement. It took me about 3 hours of watching them work to realize how much info is in the break patterns. Anyone else have a moment where a site visit flipped their opinion?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_lewis9217h ago

That rim piece thing really gets you, doesn't it. I watched a guy at a site in Arizona point out how the clay's color changed based on where it was fired, and that clicked something for me. Suddenly those random shards on the ground were like pages from a book. Digs change your whole view of the ground you walk on.

holly473h ago

Isn't it just dirt and old pottery though? Like, @joseph_lewis92, I get that people find meaning in it, but is every random shard really that deep? Seems like you could just as easily see a broken plate and move on.