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That field supervisor told me to stop scrubbing pottery with a wire brush
I used to clean every sherd I found with a stiff wire brush to get the dirt off fast. This one supervisor at a dig near Santa Fe pulled me aside and said I was destroying the surface evidence, like slip residues and burnish marks. So I switched to just using a soft toothbrush and distilled water, even if it takes twice as long. Now I actually catch details I would have missed, like faint painted lines. Has anyone else had to change up their cleaning method after getting feedback?
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olivia_white937d ago
Right? A wire brush is basically archaeological vandalism, I learned that the hard way too.
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olivia_lopez987d ago
Oh wow, I actually just read a blog post from some museum in New Mexico about this exact thing. They said even soft toothbrushes can be too harsh if you're digging in dry clay or something, because it basically turns the fragile surface into mud and smears everything. They recommended a wooden stick or even just letting the dirt naturally flake off in the lab. It's wild how easy it is to ruin something without even knowing. Makes me wonder how many mistakes I've already made without realizing it.
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Wait, you used a STIFF WIRE BRUSH on pottery? I'm shocked nobody pulled you aside sooner, that's basically sandpapering off all the subtle traces. A field tech I worked with in Colorado once scrubbed an obsidian point with a steel brush and the lead archaeologist nearly had a heart attack on the spot. Soft toothbrushes and water are the only way to go if you actually want to see what you're digging up, especially with painted stuff that just looks like dirt at first glance.
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