My total rookie mistake with a pottery shard in the field

I was digging at a site near Tucson and dropped a painted bowl fragment. It broke into three pieces, which felt like the end of the world. I calmed down, used a small brush and archival glue from my kit to piece it back together, and it's now safely bagged. Has anyone else had a heart-stopping moment like that with a fragile find?

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3 Comments

ray_mitchell587mo ago

Ugh, honestly? You probably shouldn't have glued it. Messes with the context. Let the pros handle that stuff in the lab.

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richard_hayes177mo ago

Tbh I get why you'd say that, but I had a piece break off my own find last year. I used a tiny bit of museum wax just to hold it together for photos. It peels right off without leaving any residue, so the context stays clean. Let me find the stuff I used, it was a game changer for keeping things stable until I could get it to someone who knows what they're doing.

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elizabeth4386mo ago

Wait, what about humidity though? I mean, if you're out in a field and it's damp, doesn't that stuff get weird? I saw a post from @ray_mitchell58 once about how even clean stuff can trap moisture against the surface. Maybe it's just me but I'd be scared of making a tiny problem way worse, you know? Like the wax seems okay for dry stuff on a shelf but idk about right after digging it up.

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