That week in Flagstaff when the potsherds just kept turning up

Back in 2019 I was doing a survey line west of Flagstaff, just routine walking for a gas line project. First day I found a broken metate half buried near a juniper. Thought that was the highlight. Then Tuesday I spotted three sherds with black-on-white paint, probably 1100s timeframe. By Thursday my crew had pulled 40 pieces from one small wash, mostly corrugated cooking pots. The site supervisor said it was the densest scatter he'd seen in 15 years of work. We ended up flagging a 200 meter area and the whole week turned into a mapping project. Made me remember why I got into this field instead of just doing CRM work for money. Has anyone else ever had a week where the ground just gave you everything?

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ellis.faith12d agoTop Commenter

The part about the ground giving you everything really hits home, but I gotta say that wash wasn't giving it up by luck. That dense scatter probably meant a seasonal camp or a trash midden just upstream, so the water did the digging for you over hundreds of years. Still, finding 40 pieces in a week is a solid haul, just don't mistake a good wash for a generous one.