Spent three days trying to match a pottery shard to a known type before realizing it was from a broken modern flower pot someone tossed in the dig site.

Has anyone else found a piece of 'ancient history' that turned out to be something totally recent and mundane?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_webb1d agoOG Member

Ever wonder if some of the 'junk' we toss aside at sites is actually planting false clues for future diggers? I had a student get so excited over a 'worked flint' that was just a piece of gravel shattered by a lawnmower. Makes you question every little thing you pick up.

joel_adams791d ago

That lawnmower flint story is wild. How do you even train your eye to tell the difference between that and the real thing?

elliotb571d ago

My old neighbor used to collect "arrowheads" from his garden. Had a whole shoebox full of rocks that just looked like rocks. Makes you see that kind of mistake everywhere now.