Hit a 2000-year-old wall with a shovel and learned a lesson the hard way

I was digging test pits on a site near Richmond last fall and my shovel hit something solid that rang like a bell. Turned out I had found a Roman-era foundation, but I also chipped a chunk off a corner because I wasn't using a trowel for the last few inches. Anyone else ever ruin a find by getting impatient with the tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabeth_ramirez10d ago

Digging carefully is for people with too much time on their hands... you hit something solid, you know there's something there, why waste hours picking at dirt like a dentist? I've seen guys spend three weekends uncovering a single pot shard when a proper trench through the site would have told them where the real money was. That chip you made? It's probably not even visible under the foundation anyway, and now you know exactly what's there without having to brush every grain of sand. Tools are meant to be used, just sayin'...

morgan91510d ago

Laid the edge of my shovel into what I thought was just a hard-packed clump of clay. Turned out it was a medieval pottery rim that shattered into three pieces. My buddy still calls me "The Shredder" every time we dig together. Honestly, I learned that lesson real quick - now I switch to hand tools the second the soil texture changes.

theabarnes10d ago

@elizabeth_ramirez is right that time matters, but you can't pretend there's no difference between saving an intact artifact and turning it into gravel. That "proper trench" would've told you less if the shovel mangled the dating evidence before anyone saw it.