Just hit 50 volunteer hours at the Mesa Verde dig site

I started helping out at the Mesa Verde excavation back in April, mostly just sifting dirt and tagging potsherds. Yesterday I crossed 50 hours and the site director actually let me mark a small test pit on my own. It's not a big deal to anyone else, but I've been reading about Ancestral Puebloan pottery since high school. Has anyone else gotten to do hands-on cataloging after putting in some grunt work?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly_craig26d ago

Totally get that feeling of finally being trusted with real work after all the screening and hauling. It makes those hours of sore knees worth it. Something that stood out to me is how the Puebloans were using specific clay sources from really far away, not just local stuff. Wonder if your test pit might turn up a trade piece from a completely different region.

the_anthony24d ago

That test pit might be small but it's your first independent work, so mark it with flagging tape and take photos from all four sides before you dig. Always scrape in straight lines, north to south, and bag everything even if it looks like just a rock. For cataloging, get a good magnifying loupe (helps spot temper materials in the clay) and keep a dedicated notebook where you sketch every sherd's profile. Check if your site has a reference collection of local pottery types to compare against. Oh and that trade piece idea from kelly_craig is dead on, especially if you find anything with mica flecks or different color clays.