My professor told me to check the pottery shards again and I'm glad I did

Honestly, I was working on a dig site in New Mexico last summer, cataloging what I thought were just plain brown ceramic pieces. My professor, Dr. Chen, kept saying 'Spencer, look at the interior curve one more time.' After the third time, I finally saw it: a tiny, faded red line pattern. It turned out to be a previously unknown style from the Ancestral Puebloans, dating back to around 1150 AD. We found 47 shards with that same design, which totally changed our understanding of trade routes in that area. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice lead to a bigger find?

3 comments

3 Comments

xenaroberts27d ago

Right? Makes you wonder how many other finds we've missed just because we stopped looking.

morgan_bailey9327d ago

That moment when you finally see the tiny red line pattern must have been wild. It's crazy how something that looks plain at first can totally change the whole project. I get that feeling of needing to look at something again and again before it clicks. Your professor pushing you to check the interior curve really paid off big time.

riley_miller2526d ago

Ever try taking a picture of the thing and zooming in on your phone? Sometimes the screen shows details your eyes just skip over... I had to do that with some old text once and spotted a faded pencil mark that changed everything. That professor's advice about checking curves is solid, I started running my finger along edges to feel for bumps or dips the light doesn't catch. Makes you slow down and actually see it.