Why does nobody talk about how field crews find stuff?

I was out on a dig near Santa Fe last June helping screen dirt for a university team. A volunteer found a tiny obsidian flake and the lead archaeologist said "that chip tells us more than ten pottery shards." Has anyone else had a moment where one small find totally changed how you see a site?

2 comments

2 Comments

verac408d agoTop Commenter

Nah, a good flake's not really any better than a pot shard.

ross.sean8d ago

Well, I think a good flake is actually better than a pot shard in a lot of ways. A sharp flake can still do real work, like skinning or cutting, while most pot shards are just broken pieces that can't hold an edge at all. But I get what you're saying, for pure tool making a good shard can be just as handy.