Drove myself crazy trying to match pottery sherds by eye for months

I used to sit there with a loupe and a reference book at the U of M lab trying to figure out if a rim sherd was from the Woodland or Mississippian period based on temper and curve. Spent like 3 hours on one batch last spring and still got half of them wrong. Now I just snap a quick photo and run it through the comparative collection database we got set up last fall, cuts my ID time to maybe 20 minutes. Anyone else find that the old hands-on methods feel more authentic but the digital tools are just way more accurate?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana76913d ago

It's weird how much faster it goes but doesn't feel like real archaeology...

felixlane13d ago

Not sure it has to be that deep honestly. You're still identifying the sherds, just using a faster tool to do it. Nobody's saying you can't still look at the thing after the database gives you an answer. Maybe the real question is whether spending 3 hours on a batch was ever 'authentic' or just inefficient. I'd rather get it right in 20 minutes and move on to the next site report than pat myself on the back for squinting at a rim curve until my eyes cross. Seems like a lot of people in this field get hung up on the romance of the old way without admitting that half the time the old way was just guessing. If the database is accurate, use it.

wade_kelly7712d ago

My buddy spent six weeks hand-drawing potsherds for his thesis then a database fixed his whole typology in an afternoon.

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