Pottery Washing

OK, maybe this won't be the most riveting entry. But I think it's interesting!

We found large quantities of broken pottery fragments, and they're covered in thousands of years' worth of dirt. So somebody has to given them a good scrub before they are "read" to determine whether they offer us any important information about dating or culture. 

 

 

I asked somebody to take a picture of me and got this! She did get my foot. 

But it's not a bad picture because you can see our bucket of brushes and a fruit bag. One of the retired volunteers brought several hundred fruit bags that we use to hold the shards. This keeps the finds from each individual locus (distinct archaeological layer) separate, and they're ideal for allowing the wet pieces to dry when placed in the sun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another attempt!

I really like cleaning the pottery and being the first person in millennia to see the fragments' vibrant colors emerge. Often they are a deep, burnt red, like sierra. 

Some of them are black, covered with soot that leaves my hands greasy and black. The cooking pots are red with black streaks from sitting in flames. 

There's something therapeutic about the simple, rhythmic strokes of cleaning without having to think about anything. But that's probably because I don't do it much!