22
Why does nobody talk about how fake some dig site photos are?
I was at a local archaeology talk last month in Richmond and this guy was showing off these crisp, perfect photos of a Roman villa excavation. Everything clean, trenches straight, bones laid out like a museum exhibit. Thing is, I worked as a laborer on a dig in 2018 near Williamsburg and it was nothing like that. Mud everywhere, tools scattered, dirt in every crack. The photos they released to the public were shot after three days of cleaning up and staging stuff. My buddy who still does field work says it's standard practice to pretty things up for the funding boards. Makes me wonder how many of these "amazing discoveries" we see online are just good photography and a lot of sweeping. Has anyone else worked a dig that looked totally different from the final pictures?
2 comments