Walked past the same dig site for 3 months before I noticed the change

There's this little excavation trench near the river that I pass on my lunch breaks, and for the first 2 months it just looked like a muddy hole with some rocks. But last week I stopped and actually looked close and saw they had uncovered these clear pottery rim shapes and a charcoal stain layer that wasn't there before. Did the slow work of troweling really make that big a difference, or am I just now paying attention?

2 comments

2 Comments

clairem471mo ago

Did you ever go back at different times of day? I walked past a construction site for weeks thinking nothing changed, then one evening with the light hitting it right I saw the whole foundation outline.

grace_knight701mo ago

Huh, @clairem47, did you ever think about checking it on a cloudy day versus a clear one? The diffused light can actually flatten shadows and make subtle changes in grade or texture stand out more than direct sun. I noticed that when I was trying to see if a retaining wall was settling right, the overcast light let me see the uneven spots I'd missed for months. You might catch something the neighbors never see just by watching for a thick cloud layer to roll in.