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A grad student's comment made me rethink how I date pottery shards
I was showing my team some Roman pottery pieces from a dig near York, thinking the glaze patterns clearly pointed to the 2nd century AD. A quiet grad student looked at my notes and said, 'But what if the kiln site reused older molds? The clay source changed in 150 AD, and this piece has the old mix.' I had to stop and admit I never checked the local clay records for that site, just went with the style guide. Now I spend an extra hour cross-referencing material sources before I put a date on anything. It feels slower, but my last three reports had zero pushback from the journal reviewers. Has anyone else had a simple fact check change their whole method?
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