PSA: A peer review comment on my paper about the Roman fort at Vindolanda completely shifted my view on artifact context.

They argued my focus on the writing tablets ignored the surrounding leather scraps and pottery, which actually told a fuller story about daily life. Anyone else had their interpretation of a site fundamentally challenged by a colleague's feedback?

3 comments

3 Comments

seth_shah18d ago

Happened with my trench report, totally changed my methods.

hall.joel18d ago

I read a blog post from a field archaeologist who said his first trench report got torn apart by his professor. The professor circled every single assumption he made without proof, like 15 times in the first two pages. He said it taught him to write like someone was trying to poke holes in everything, which made his later work way stronger.

valellis18d ago

Trench reports are a classic example. The feedback can feel brutal, but it's often the best way to learn. It forces you to look at your own work from a totally new angle. My own methods got a lot better after a few rounds of that. It's less about being wrong and more about finding a clearer way to show your work.