Knocked over a 300 year old pot at a dig outside Athens, thought my career was over

Max Martin · 2026-09-07T05:55:05.971205+00:00

This was about 2 years ago on a volunteer dig near Corinth. I was brushing dirt off a section of floor, stood up too fast, and my elbow clipped a ceramic vessel that was sitting on a low wall. It tipped, hit the ground, and cracked into three pieces. The trench supervisor went quiet for what felt like a full minute. My face was burning. I thought they were going to ban me from the site or worse. Turns out the pot was already broken in antiquity and had been restored on site the week before. The crack went along the old glue line, so no new damage. The supervisor just looked at me and said, 'Next time, watch your elbows. And bring more tape.' I still felt like an idiot for the rest of the week. But it got me thinking about how we treat artifacts that have already been messed with by time. Do you guys get more nervous around restored pieces or fully intact ones? Because for me, restored pieces feel more fragile in a weird way, like they've already proven they can break once.

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Knocked over a 300 year old pot at a dig outside Athens, thought my career was over | Archaeology Discoveries - Topic Shares