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Why does nobody talk about how much context matters in pottery shard dating?
I used to think you could just look at the glaze and know the era, but after a dig in New Mexico last spring where a sherd from 1100 AD looked almost identical to one from 1400 AD, I realized you need the soil layers and nearby charcoal samples too. Anyone else rely way too much on surface features at first?
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wren2303d agoMost Upvoted
Soil layering is key for sure, but the real wildcard people miss is how clay sourcing changed over time - different pits or trade routes can make 300-year-old sherds look like total twins.
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Read that same observation in a journal article about New Mexico pueblos last month.
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fiona_carr263d ago
Oh wow, a buddy of mine found a whole cluster of matching sherds from different pueblos and they were totally unrelated.
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