Pro tip: stop letting YouTube archaeologists tell you how to date pottery

I used to follow this popular channel that insisted you need a fancy carbon dating lab for anything older than 500 years. Then a retired professor at a dig in New Mexico told me I was overcomplicating it. She said look at the temper material and rim shape first, that'll get you within 50 years easy. Now I save $300 per sample by doing basic typology before even thinking about sending stuff out. Anyone else had to unlearn bad advice from online experts?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael_coleman103h ago

Is it possible that @carter.casey's buddy was actually looking at a lead glaze on those "colonial" pieces? Lead glazes can mimic older styles really well (which is why fakes are so common) but a simple UV light test would have caught them. I've seen guys spend hundreds on thermoluminescence when a black light and a magnifying glass would've told them the same thing. The old-timer at the historical society probably just spotted the telltale orange glow of modern lead glaze under UV - that's a dead giveaway for 20th century stuff. And yeah, YouTube archaeologists love skipping over the boring basics like temper and rim profiles because it doesn't make for good video content.

carter.casey7h ago

Had a buddy who spent six months convinced he found a colonial-era site based on some YouTuber's guide to identifying 18th century ceramics. Sent off three samples for thermoluminescence testing at like $400 a pop. Turned out they were all 1950s reproductions. An old-timer at the local historical society just looked at the glaze for five seconds and laughed. Now my friend jokes that his wallet learned more than he did.