I chose to focus on pottery shards over a big structure at my last dig

Our team in New Mexico had to pick between fully excavating a small, collapsed adobe wall or spending our last week on a midden pile full of broken pottery. Everyone wanted the wall because it's a clear 'feature'. I pushed for the midden. We cataloged over 300 pieces of painted shards in 5 days, which let us date the site's occupation way more precisely than the wall ever could. The wall was just one moment in time, but the trash pile told the whole story of who lived there. Has anyone else had to argue for the 'boring' artifacts over the flashy find?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaretramirez14d ago

Yeah, I was always a wall person too until I worked on a site where the kitchen trash gave us way more info about daily life than the foundation ever did. Changed my whole view on what's actually important.

blair_nguyen14d ago

So what kind of stuff did you find in the trash that told you more? Like food scraps or broken tools?

reese_rodriguez8614d ago

Exactly, that kitchen trash point is everything. @margaretramirez gets it. I had a site where a trash pit full of animal bones and broken tools showed trade patterns the fancy ceremonial structure never hinted at. The boring stuff always has the real story.