Just broke a roman pot at a dig in Bath last Tuesday

I was working on a trench near the Roman Baths complex, carefully brushing dirt off what looked like a small storage pot. Right as I was about to call the supervisor over, my elbow knocked a loose rock that smacked right into the side of the thing. It cracked clean in half before I could even react. The site director was pretty calm about it, just told me to bag both pieces and label everything. We actually managed to glue it back together in the lab later that day with some special conservation paste. The pot turned out to be from the 2nd century, so I felt awful about it even though they said it's pretty common during digs. Has anyone else dropped or broken something important on a site and had to deal with the cleanup?

2 comments

2 Comments

shah.ben1mo ago

Wait, they actually glued it back together in one day? Tbh that's pretty impressive but also kind of hilarious imagining you sitting there watching them stick a 2nd century pot back together like it's a broken mug from IKEA.

the_lucas1mo ago

I actually read about this happening to a guy on a dig in York last year who dropped a whole medieval jug. He was so gutted he didn't sleep for two days apparently lol. But seriously, the conservation people at Bath are really good with that glue stuff, I saw a video of them fixing a similar pot from the same era. It's wild how they can just piece it back together and it looks almost new, but I bet you still felt your heart stop when it cracked.