Shoutout to the grad student I heard at a talk in Albuquerque

She was presenting on a dig near Chaco Canyon. Said they found a broken pot with corn residue. But the cool part? They matched the pollen in the residue to a field 15 miles away. That one detail showed trade routes we never knew about. It made me think about how we look at finds. We focus on the big, whole objects. But the tiny stuff stuck to them tells the real story. Now I always check project reports for residue analysis sections. Anyone else have a favorite 'small clue' method that changed a site's story for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_troy1mo ago

Fifteen miles for a corn pollen match is wild. That single pot basically redraws the local map. It's crazy what gets stuck in the cracks.

elizabethg181mo ago

That's how history works, small things changing the whole story. You find a receipt in an old coat and suddenly remember a whole year. The past is just sitting there waiting to be tripped over.

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wrenh651mo ago

Yeah that line about the past sitting there waiting to be tripped over is so true. I used to think history was just big wars and famous people, stuff in books. But @the_troy is right, it's the small stuff stuck in the cracks that changes everything. Finding one old pot or a random receipt can flip the whole story. Makes you realize how much we don't know is just buried in everyday things.

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