Vent: Used a metal trowel on a fragile dig for 8 months before someone called me out

I was working a site near Santa Fe last spring, scraping around some old pueblo foundations. I thought my trowel was fine, it was the same one I always used. One day a volunteer from the local archaeology society walked over and asked if I knew I was scratching up the pottery fragments. I had no idea. She pointed out the fine grooves I was leaving on the sherds. Turns out a plastic or wooden trowel would have been way gentler on stuff that old. I felt pretty dumb, especially since I teach kids about handling artifacts carefully. Has anyone else had a tool habit that turned out to be doing more harm than good?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaelgrant17h ago

Honestly, did the exact same thing with a wire brush on an old bottle dump.

annajenkins17h ago

@michaelgrant yeah, is it really that big a deal?

paulw5312h ago

Went through something similar with an old set of chisels on a historic brick foundation. Was cleaning off old mortar thinking I was being careful, but the chisel was biting into the brick faces and leaving scars. Took a guy twice my age, just stood there watching me for a while, then handed me a wooden scraper and said "try this." Night and day difference. The brick came clean without any damage. Felt like an idiot but also grateful he didn't let me keep going for another week.