I was at the museum in St. Augustine and saw a piece of pottery that changed my mind

They had a display of Spanish colonial stuff from the 1600s, and one broken plate had a clear fingerprint baked into the clay. I mean, you could see the swirls and everything. It just hit me that a real person, over 400 years ago, pressed their thumb into that wet clay before it went into the kiln. Idk, maybe it's just me, but it felt way more personal than just looking at an old plate. Has anyone else seen something like that, where a tiny detail made an ancient object feel super real?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionac3325d ago

Yeah, that fingerprint thing gets me too. I saw a Roman roof tile in London with a dog's paw print baked into it, like the animal just walked across it while it was drying. Suddenly you're not just looking at a thing, you're sharing a moment with someone, or some dog, from a totally different world. What gets me is how ordinary it was for them, just a daily accident, but it's what makes them feel closest to us now.

emma_garcia25d ago

Totally! It's like the boring stuff they never meant to save ends up being the real time capsule. Those little mistakes outlasted all their grand monuments.

beth14724d ago

Actually, that paw print tile was likely from a cat, not a dog.