19
Overheard a guy at the museum say pottery shards are just 'ancient trash'
Some tourist in front of me at the British Museum called a display of Roman amphorae 'basically old garbage.' It made me wonder how many people walk past real history every day without giving it a second thought - has anyone else dealt with clueless comments like that?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
willow_ellis18d ago
Wait, did he mean ancient trash like it's worthless or like it's literally garbage that people threw away back then? Because if he meant the second thing, that's actually kind of a valid point even if he didn't realize it. Most of what we dig up is stuff people tossed out on purpose - broken pots, old food bones, worn out tools. The whole reason we find so many pottery shards is because they didn't have garbage trucks back then, they just threw things in a pile outside the city walls. So yeah, it's ancient trash, but that's what makes it real history instead of some fancy decorated vase that some rich person kept locked up. I wonder if that would change how he looks at it or if he'd still just see old broken stuff.
2
wood.john18d ago
Hold on, wait. You're telling me that most of what they dig up in those big archaeology sites is just old trash people threw away? Not fancy tombs or treasure chests or anything like that? I always thought they were finding forgotten temples and golden masks and things like that. But broken pots and old food bones from the pile outside the wall? That's kind of a let down and also kind of hilarious at the same time. It makes sense though, nobody was throwing their good stuff in the trash.
4