Had to choose between keeping a bronze age pot in one piece or risking a repair

I was helping at a dig in southern England last month and we found a broken beaker with some faint spiral marks. My supervisor wanted to glue it back together, but I pushed for leaving the pieces separate so future researchers could study the soil residue inside each sherd. We ended up conserving the fragments in a sealed bag, and the lab later found grain pollen on one piece that had never been seen in that region before. Anyone else ever argue against restoring something just to hold on to the dirt evidence?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew9d ago

So you fought for dirt over glue? Legendary move, really.

the_paul8d ago

@the_drew calling me legendary is a stretch, I'm more like the cautionary tale you tell at the end of the night. My stubbornness just happened to pay off for once.

christopherw348d ago

Has trying different things ever actually helped you find what works @the_drew? For me, just picking one method and sticking with it made way more difference than switching around.