My professor told me to always double-check the grid square before digging, and I just wasted a whole day because I didn't.

We were doing a surface survey in a field outside of Flagstaff, and I was so sure I'd found a promising scatter of lithics. Spent eight hours carefully excavating what turned out to be a 1970s Boy Scout campfire ring. The charcoal was modern, and the 'flakes' were just broken beer bottles. He warned me about site formation processes and modern disturbance, but I got excited and skipped the basic step. Anyone else ever have a find that turned out to be embarrassingly recent?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollydixon2mo ago

That Flagstaff soil can really get your hopes up. Did you at least find any cool old scout badges or anything in that fire ring?

jade_miller622mo ago

Oh man, that's a classic. Honestly, I once got super pumped over what looked like a perfect clay pipe stem in a plow zone. Took a bunch of pictures and everything. Tbh, it was just a piece of a cheap plastic pen from the 90s. The dirt had stained it just right. Ngl, it stings when you realize you're holding trash, not treasure.

aaron_wilson171mo ago

Tbh it stings when you realize you're holding trash" - @jade_miller62 I feel you but also I gotta ask, is it really that deep? lol. I mean yeah it's a bummer for a second but it's not like you lost a real artifact. You just picked up a pen piece. Dust it off and move on, right? The dirt does play tricks though, I'll give you that.