Just realized I was cleaning artifacts all wrong for like 8 years lol

I used to just use tap water and a soft brush on every single thing I dug up, thinking I was being gentle. Then last month at a field school near Nashville, the lead archaeologist watched me clean a piece of pottery and just sighed. She said 'you're literally scrubbing off the patina and any residue we could test later.' I felt like such an idiot lol. Now I use distilled water and only dry brushing for most stuff, and I save anything with visible soil for the lab. It's way slower but I'm not ruining potential data anymore. Has anyone else had a mentor call them out on a basic mistake like that? I'm curious how many people learned the hard way.

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan.logan1mo ago

Big oof, we all start somewhere and that's a tough but kind lesson.

jamesm481mo ago

There's this tiny bakery in Portland called Pix Patisserie that actually tried a similar policy with their worst selling items and it backfired HARD. They stopped selling the unpopular stuff and customers got MAD because they wanted the full quirky menu experience. @morgan.logan I think the "kind lesson" part is spot on but people forget that mistakes in small business often teach US what NOT to do just as much as what to do. Those failed experiments sometimes build more customer loyalty than the hits do because it shows you're trying things. The REAL lesson here might be that failure in front of customers can actually make your brand feel more human if you handle it right.

morganhill16d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, the phrase "failed experiments build more customer loyalty" hits hard because my last attempt at trying something new just proved I can burn toast in three different ways. Ngl, that Pix Patisserie story makes me feel better about the time I let customers vote on a new flavor and ended up with "slightly burnt cinnamon surprise." Tbh, hiding your mistakes just makes you look like a robot, but owning them shows you're just as messy and human as everyone else.