craig.mila•8d agoProlific Poster

Best week I ever had on a dig in New Mexico last spring

We were out near Chaco Canyon for a field school week, and I found three intact pottery shards in one afternoon. The next day a volunteer noticed a chert blade edge sticking out of a test pit, and we pulled up a full knife about 6 inches long. Has anyone else had a week like that where everything just clicks?

4 comments

4 Comments

mila_campbell258d agoTop Commenter

Used to think field schools were just busy work for credits, but that week changed my mind completely. Finding a tool still in context like that is exactly the kind of thing that makes you understand why people spend their whole lives doing this.

matthewmartin7d ago

Wait, so you went from thinking it was just busy work to having your whole worldview shifted in one week? That's kind of hilarious actually, like going to a concert you thought would be boring and then leaving with a new religion. I mean, I get it though. Finding an actual tool that someone used hundreds or thousands of years ago, still sitting there like they just set it down for lunch, that's got to be wild. I'd probably start crying and then accidentally drop it or something. But seriously, good for you. Just don't let it go to your head and start wearing a fedora and calling yourself an "archaeologist" at parties.

dianaanderson8d ago

Field schools definitely hit different when you actually find something significant. That hands on moment connects all the classroom theory to real history. Did you get to keep any photos of the artifact?

craig.john7d ago

@mila_campbell25 probably still has dirt under her nails from that dig.