My niece asked why we dig up old stuff and it made me remember my first dig

Honestly, she's 8 and just asked me point blank over dinner last night. I told her about my first field school in New Mexico, scraping dirt for hours to find a single pottery shard. Tbh, back then I just wanted the big finds, but now I get that the small stuff tells the real story. Has anyone else had a simple question make you rethink why you got into this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_oliver2mo ago

Wait, you found a whole pottery shard on your first dig? That's crazy lucky. My first week I just found rocks that looked like rocks.

miam111mo ago

Wait till you hear about my friend who found a Roman coin in his backyard on the first swing of a metal detector he borrowed. Some people just have that dumb luck, I swear. Like the universe decided he needed a cool story and everyone else gets the boring rocks that look like rocks. Honestly, I think the beginners luck thing is real, or maybe the experienced folks just get too picky and walk right past the good stuff. Me, I'd probably trip over a whole amphora and spill my coffee on it before I even noticed. So really, finding rocks that look like rocks is still a win, just a really disappointing one.

iris_adams2mo ago

Yeah it's like that with everything. People who try hard get nothing, then someone just walks in and hits the jackpot first try.