TIL my favorite dig site in New Mexico was largely ignored because it was 'too recent'

I spent 3 weeks last spring excavating a 1940s homestead foundation outside Santa Fe and the artifacts were amazing, but the lead archaeologist kept calling it 'junk era' material, so why are we gatekeeping what counts as archaeology when that Coke bottle with the local bottler's stamp tells a real story about rural supply chains?

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lee7331mo ago

Junk is junk, real archaeology needs time to separate what matters from what's just trash.