My professor said to always double-check the grid squares, and today it paid off

During a dig in southern Utah three years ago, my old field school professor told me, 'Never trust the first pass, always check your grid twice.' I was working a new site yesterday and almost logged a unit as empty after the first sweep. I went back over it like he said and found a tiny obsidian flake in the corner of square B4. It was maybe 2 centimeters long and totally easy to miss. That little piece changes our whole idea of tool use in that area. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice save a find from being overlooked?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenar142mo ago

Honestly, that makes me wonder how many cool things we've ALL missed because someone didn't have a mentor to give them that one key rule.

christopher3851mo ago

That thing about missing cool stuff really hits home. @reese_bell I just remembered when I tried learning guitar for two years and couldn't get barre chords to sound right, then a buddy spent ten minutes showing me to shift my thumb position and suddenly everything clicked. Makes you wonder how many hobbies or skills we gave up on just because one simple tip never found us.

reese_bell2mo ago

Ever think about how much we figure out too late? I used to believe people just found their way, but @xenar14 is right, a simple tip can unlock a whole new thing. It's kinda sad how much gets lost just because no one was there to point the way.