F
11

Hit my 200th cataloged potsherd last week, never expected that number

I started sorting a surface collection from a creek bank near Franklin, Tennessee just to identify a few pieces, but last Tuesday I logged pottery fragment number 200 and realized I've been at this for 8 months now, has anyone else's casual survey just ballooned into a full inventory like that?
2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
2 Comments
paulnguyen
That "casual survey ballooning" line hit home for me. What nobody's mentioned yet is that a creek bank collection like yours isn't just a pile of random pieces, it's basically a map of how people moved through that area over time. Once you hit 200 shards, you're not just sorting pottery anymore, you're piecing together a whole settlement pattern that casual digging never shows you.
6
craig.parker
Have you folks ever tried mapping where each piece came from? I bet it changes how you see the whole creek once you start connecting those dots. Makes me wish I had your patience for that kind of detail, honestly.
4