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Just realized I've been using the wrong trowel for pottery shards this whole time

I was out on a dig last month near Santa Fe and kept finding tiny pieces of what looked like painted pottery. My field supervisor watched me for maybe 2 minutes then walked over. She said hey you're scraping too hard with that flat trowel and handed me a curved one. I felt dumb but also relieved because I was breaking so many pieces. Turns out the curved edge lets you work under the shard without cracking it. I've been digging for about 3 years now and nobody ever told me that before. Has anyone else had a basic tool switch totally change how they find stuff?
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2 Comments
grant.kevin
@rose_murray probably has a whole set of tools she swaps out depending on her mood. Next thing you'll tell me there's a special spoon for digging up bottlecaps.
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rose_murray
Funny how the right tool suddenly makes everything click, isn't it?
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