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I was helping clean pottery at a dig in New Mexico, and an older volunteer told me, 'Every piece you touch, someone held last about 800 years ago.'
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julia_fisher281mo ago
Yeah, the exact number is probably just for the feeling of it. I mean, like @bailey.sam said, the cool part is the idea. It just hits you, that you're holding something a real person used for their everyday life, like getting water or making food. Makes the past feel super close.
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bailey.sam2mo ago
Yeah, that number is probably just a guess to make a point. I heard a podcast that said a lot of pottery shards in that area are from the Pueblo III and IV periods, which can cover a huge range. So @richard_wells59 is right to question the exact 800 years, it could be 500 or 1100 just as easily. The cool part is the idea, not the math, that you're literally holding something a person made and used for their family. Makes you wonder what they were cooking in it.
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