PSA: Using a garden sieve changed how I sort pottery sherds

I was digging through a midden pile at a site near Springfield last summer and kept pulling out tiny sherds mixed with gravel. My fingers were cramping after an hour of picking through dirt. A buddy from the field school told me to bring a cheap garden sieve with 1/4 inch mesh. I tried it the next day and holy cow, it cut my sorting time by half. Just dump the loose soil through the sieve and all the little pieces stay on top. Now I bring two sieves with different mesh sizes for fine and coarse material. Has anyone else tried this trick for screening site dirt?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_shah5d ago

You tried stacking them yet? I take my coarse sieve and put it on top of a fine one. Big gravel and bone chunks stay up top. Little sherds and microdebitage fall through to the bottom. Saves me from having to dump and sift twice. Found a whole arrow tip base this way last month that I would've missed with just the one screen.

butler.shane5d ago

Wait, a whole arrow tip would've just fallen through on a single screen?