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That dig supervisor in Nevada who wouldn't stop saying 'context is everything'
I volunteered on a dig near Lovelock Cave back in 2019. The supervisor was this older guy, probably 70, who kept stopping people from picking up artifacts they saw on the surface. One volunteer found a perfect arrowhead sitting on top of a pile of dirt and he made her leave it exactly where it was. He said 'you take that home and you just stole a piece of the story nobody will ever read.' He pointed at a cluster of rocks and bones nearby showing how the ground layers connected. It stuck with me because I always thought archaeology was about finding cool stuff, not about leaving things alone. Anyone else run into a field director who changed how you see the whole process?
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mason20917d ago
Did that arrowhead end up getting recorded into the site log or just left there?
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leor3717d ago
Actually they recorded it but not as a formal artifact. The site log just says "possible arrowhead found near unit 3" with no measurements or exact depth. I was there when they bagged it and they didn't even take a photo before tossing it in the finds bag. They logged the shotgun shell base they found three feet away though with full coordinates and everything. Kinda backwards if you ask me since the arrowhead was way older and way more relevant to the timeline they're digging for.
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