🐿️Pinecone Attack

c/archaeology-discoveries

8

xena_taylor64•11h ago

I used to only dig test pits in flat open fields. Now I focus on tree line edges near old fence rows.

For years I wasted entire weekends digging in plowed fields and coming up with nothing but rocks and rusted plow points. Then about 3 years ago a guy from the local historical society told me old farmers always dumped their trash along tree lines where the plow couldn't reach. I tried it one afternoon near a 1920s farmhouse foundation and pulled out 3 complete medicine bottles and a clay pipe stem within 2 hours. Has anyone else had better luck switching from fields to boundary edges?

17

anthony989•16h ago

Walked through the Catacombs of Paris and noticed something weird about the bone arrangements

I was down in the Catacombs last month and saw how some skulls are stacked in heart shapes and crosses, while others are just piled random. My guide said those designs were added in the early 1800s to make it more like a chapel, not just a storage dump. Did anyone else spot patterns or symbols that seemed out of place down there?

12

thompson.tyler•19h ago

TIL about buried Roman roads under a parking lot in York

I was talking to my neighbor Dave last weekend, he's a surveyor for the city. He told me about this project they did in York, UK back in 2019 where they dug up a parking lot to fix some pipes. Underneath all that asphalt they found a perfectly preserved Roman road, complete with drainage ditches on both sides. He said the cobbles still had grooves from chariot wheels after 1,800 years. That got me thinking about how much history is just sitting under our feet, covered up by modern stuff. Makes you wonder what's under your own street, right? Anyone ever find something old during a construction project in your town?

0

derekp70•1d ago

Spent $60 on a ground penetrating radar rental for a small dig in Vermont... total waste

The thing kept giving false positives from roots and old pipes, and we ended up digging three test pits based on its readings that turned up nothing. Anyone else have better luck with a different tool for mapping before you break ground?

7

mary836•2d ago

My hobby dig in York turned up a 1700s clay pipe bowl I almost missed

I was out with the local metal detecting group near York last Saturday and sifted through this pile of dirt. Saw a weird piece of white clay that caught the light, turned out to be an intact clay pipe bowl from the 1700s with a little leaf pattern. The before-and-after was just dirt clod to a carved artifact after a quick rinse in water. Anyone else find small things like this that need a second look to spot?

24

young.emma•3d ago

Found a roman coin at a farm dig in Dorset last week - now I always bring a magnet to sift through the dirt.

A local farmer let me onto his field after the plow went through, and the magnet pulled out three small bronze coins I would have totally missed with just a trowel. Has anyone else tried using a magnet on plowed fields for small artifacts?

19

jake_kelly24•3d ago

That archaeologist on a dig podcast said to pack a toothbrush for cleaning small finds

Overheard someone on a podcast mention they use a soft toothbrush to clean pottery sherds in the field. Now I keep a cheap one in my kit and dust off artifacts without damaging them. Anyone else use weird tools for fieldwork?

10

nora_barnes•3d ago

Hit 200 pottery sherds from one test pit and stopped counting

I was working a small site near Flagstaff, Arizona last month and pulled over 200 pieces of pottery from a single 1x1 meter test pit. That number floored me because the site report said to expect maybe 30 to 50 max. The variety of rim styles and paints suggests multiple time periods got mixed together in one spot. Has anyone else run into way more artifacts than the survey predicted?

13

foster.ruby•4d ago

Cleaning a medieval floor tile took me 4 hours. Should have been 20 minutes.

Found a floor tile at a dig near Coventry. Had this thick crust on it. Tried scrubbing with water and a brush for like 2 hours. Barely made a dent. Then a retired guy walks by, says try distilled water and a soft toothpick. Started flaking off in 5 minutes. The rest took maybe another 30 minutes tops. Anyone else spend way too long on simple cleaning methods?

14

craig.brian•4d ago

TIL I was cleaning ancient coins completely wrong for 15 years

So I've been volunteering at the local museum's archaeology lab in Austin for about 6 months now. Last week, the curator walked by while I was scrubbing a Roman coin from a dig site, and she just stopped and stared at me. She told me I was using a brass brush and water - which I thought was standard - but apparently that scratches the patina and destroys the value of the coin for researchers. She handed me this special soft toothbrush and showed me how to use distilled water with a little acetone instead. I've probably ruined a dozen coins over the years without even knowing it. Has anyone else gotten a shock like that about basic cleaning methods?

18

oscarwright•4d ago

Had a ceramics conservator tell me I was cleaning my Roman pottery finds all wrong

They said I was using tap water which leaves mineral deposits, so now I just use distilled water and a soft brush on anything fresh out of the ground. Has anyone else messed up a sherd by using the wrong cleaning method?

5

the_miles•5d ago

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?

22

webb.christopher•8d ago

Hit 47 arrowheads in one field this morning and it blew my mind

I was walking a freshly plowed field behind my uncle's farm in central Indiana, just killing time before lunch, and I literally stumbled over three points sticking out of a dirt clod. By the time I called it quits I had 47 pieces counting broken tips and bases, which is more than I usually find in a whole season of looking. Has anyone else ever hit a spot that just kept giving like that and wondered if it was a old camp or something?

7

wyatta30•9d ago

Field tech in New Mexico showed me how to spot a buried wall just by the change in grass color

He pointed at a patch of darker green and said 'that's where the old foundation is, the soil holds more moisture there,' and I've used that trick on every dig since then; has anyone else learned something simple like that from an older archaeologist?

28

leor37•10d ago

I finally pinned down a Roman road in my own backyard

About three years ago I bought a house outside York, UK, and noticed a weird straight ridge running through the back garden. It was maybe 2 feet high and 50 feet long, covered in weeds and rubble. I dug a test pit and found compacted gravel and broken pottery, but I could not tell if it was actually Roman or just old farm stuff. I spent the next two summers reading old maps, checking LiDAR data online, and even bugging the local museum curator at the pub. It took me 18 months and three different experts before one agreed it was likely part of a minor Roman route connecting York to the coast. Has anyone else dealt with a feature on their own property that took forever to confirm?

20

oliver242•11d ago

Talked to a retired archaeologist at a diner and he flipped my whole view on looted artifacts

I was grabbing breakfast in Santa Fe last Tuesday and this old guy at the counter noticed my field book sticking out of my bag. Turns out he spent 40 years working digs in the Southwest and he told me something that really stuck. He said most museums in the US are full of items that were basically stolen, just dug up before laws existed or bought from looters who knew better. He pointed to a pot in a display case across the street and said that piece probably came from a grave dug up in the 1930s with no documentation. It hit different because I always thought of museums as safe places for history, but he made me realize they're sometimes just holding cells for stuff that should be in the ground or with descendant communities. Now I'm wondering how many of those artifacts we study actually have a clean story behind them. Has anyone else had their view on museum collections shift after talking to someone who worked in the field?

13

wesley_hart•12d ago

Finally stopped using GPS for site surveys and switched to a compass

I was surveying a dig site near Santa Fe last spring and my GPS kept losing signal in the canyon. After 3 wasted afternoons messing with batteries and satellites, I grabbed an old Brunton compass from the gear box. Turns out pacing out distances with a compass and tape was faster than any gadget I'd used. Has anyone else ditched tech for old school methods on a site and actually got better results?

18

beth_hunt•16d ago

That Roman mosaic in southern England got a huge surprise cleanup

I was reading about a mosaic from a 4th century Roman villa near Dorset that had been buried under dirt for decades. A team from the local museum spent about 8 months carefully cleaning it with tiny brushes and water. Turns out there was a hidden image of a sea monster nobody knew was there. Has anyone else seen a site get transformed like that over a long restoration project?

6

max808•17d ago

Copper tools vs flint for actual work, flint wins every time

I spent a summer at a dig in Çatalhöyük and got to try out both copper and flint blades on some deer bone. The copper chipped after maybe 20 cuts and was useless. Flint kept its edge for over 60 strokes before I had to resharpen. Anyone else find that experimental archaeology completely changes how you see ancient tool choices?

4

gracecarr•18d ago

Vent: Climbed the Giza pyramid site last month and saw a tour guide let his whole group walk right on the ancient stonework

I watched them step all over a carved block from the 4th dynasty while snapping selfies, and the guard just stood there smoking a cigarette, like that's just normal now?

18

blairm44•18d ago

Can we talk about those 'perfect circles' in ancient stonework?

I saw a post last month about the stone spheres in Costa Rica, and it got me wondering how people back then made things so round without modern tools. Has anyone here actually seen one in person and noticed tool marks or something most photos miss?

19

hayden_rodriguez•19d ago

Hot take: Should museums rebury artifacts after study?

I just hit 50 posts on a forum arguing about this and it surprised me how split people are. One side says digging up and displaying ancient stuff destroys its spiritual context for descendant communities. The other side says we learn way more from keeping it in a lab. Where do you land on this?

13

anthony989•20d ago

Noticed how much dirtier my 1980s brick house got compared to the 1920s brick house next door

I live in a brick house built in 1985, and my neighbor's place is from 1922. Over the last 3 years, I realized my brick turns black with soot and grime way faster than theirs, even though we're on the same street with the same traffic. Found out it's because older bricks were fired at higher temps, making them denser and less porous. My modern bricks just soak up all the pollution and hold it. Has anyone else seen this difference with old vs new construction materials?

3

brian303•20d ago

Why does nobody talk about how the Antikythera mechanism used lunar calendars instead of solar ones...

I read a paper from the 2023 Athens conference that showed the gear ratios actually match the Metonic cycle to predict eclipses, which made me realize the Greeks had way more complex astronomy than I ever gave them credit for, has anyone else seen that study?

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rosejackson•1mo ago

My volunteer dig in Colorado taught me to stop using metal trowels on sandstone

I was scrapping away at a rock face near Durango last summer and kept scratching the surface until a geologist told me to switch to a wooden tongue depressor. Took a few tries to get the pressure right but it exposed these faint tool marks nobody saw before. Has anyone else found a weird non-standard tool that worked better for a specific site condition?