kelly_coleman61•1mo agoProlific Poster

A volunteer pointed out I was cleaning artifacts too aggressively

Last summer at the dig near Pompeii, a retired conservator named Marisa told me I was scrubbing too hard on a piece of terra cotta. She said I was probably removing surface traces that could hold residue for analysis. I switched to using a soft brush and just distilled water, and now I let the dirt do more of the talking. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from early field work?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee.lucas1mo ago

Marisa sounds like she's gatekeeping a little. I've seen people treat terra cotta like it's made of paper mache. You're scrubbing ancient dirt off a fired clay pot, not cleaning a crime scene. Unless you were using a wire brush, I doubt you removed anything meaningful. Some of these "residue traces" are just wishful thinking anyway. A little elbow grease never hurt a Roman shard.

the_nina1mo ago

Right, Lee basically nailed it. I remember watching a documentary where they found an entire amphora that had been sitting in the mud for 2,000 years and the conservator just used a soft brush and water. The idea that normal dirt is some kind of scientific sample that gets destroyed by a toothbrush feels a little dramatic. People need to relax.