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The field school kid in New Mexico changed my mind on pottery shards
Heard a student at the Chaco site call plain ware 'boring filler' and I used to think that too, but after 3 seasons of mapping, the undecorated pieces tell more about daily life than any fancy painted bowl, so who else skips the pretty stuff for the plain bits?
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ellis.charles18d ago
Nodding along hard here. I spent two summers at a site in Nevada where everyone fought over the painted sherds for the lab photos, but the plain stuff sat in bags for months. Once I actually started sorting the undecorated pieces by paste and temper, you could see trade routes and even which families were making their own pots versus buying from neighbors. That is way more interesting than another pretty bowl, honestly. It's like the difference between reading someone's diary and looking at their holiday photos, you know? The plain bits are the everyday story, and I'll take that over pretty every time.
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