Had to pick between a Roman dig site and a Viking one for my field school

Last spring I got accepted to two different field schools, one near Hadrian's Wall in northern England and another one on the Isle of Skye. I went with the Roman option because I figured the artifacts would be more structured and easier to identify for a beginner. Ended up spending 6 weeks digging up pottery sherds and a single bronze coin that was too corroded to even read the emperor's name on it. Has anyone else picked a dig based on the time period and regretted it when the finds were underwhelming?

3 comments

3 Comments

corap2113d ago

Did you at least get to keep the coin or did the museum people take it?

lily5713d ago

@corap21, yeah, right. They made us hand over everything. Pretty sure I could have pried the mortar out from between two bricks and they'd want that catalogued, too. Honestly, a corroded coin is still a cool story, but 'underwhelming finds' sounds like the standard experience to me. People watch too much Indiana Jones.

karencampbell13d ago

Oh man, @lily57 hit the nail right on the head with that Indiana Jones comment! I remember picking a Viking dig because I had this whole "shield maiden" fantasy in my head, and you know what I found? A single rusted iron buckle that looked EXACTLY like the ones in my dad's tool shed. I spent the whole time wondering if I'd accidentally dug up someone's 1970s garage. At least your Roman coin has a story behind it, even if it's too cruddy to read. My buckle just made me feel like the universe was pranking me.