Overheard an old professor say something about potshards that stuck with me

I was at a museum talk last month and this retired archaeologist said most people dig with too much faith in the dirt. He claimed he could tell more from a single rim sherd in five minutes than most teams learn from a whole trench in a day. Anybody else ever get that feeling that you're just moving dirt instead of finding things?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_west1mo ago

Yeah, I read something once about how most amateurs just dig up junk and call it history.

sandralee1mo ago

Totally agree with you. Got dragged to a local "historical dig" by a friend last summer and it was just a bunch of people with shovels finding old soda cans and rusty nails. One guy got real excited over a piece of plastic thinking it was some vintage artifact. I just stood there wishing I had brought a book. Felt like we were just making a mess in someone's backyard for nothing.

tyler6141mo ago

@sandralee I felt the same way until I tried something different. A buddy dragged me to a surface survey once and it totally changed my view on digging. We just walked plowed fields scanning for pottery sticking up after a rain. Found a few nice rim sherds that told way more than any hole we could have dug. It made me realize that sometimes you learn more from what's sitting right on top than from tearing things up. Now I'm way more careful about where I actually put a shovel in the ground.