the_viola•27d agoMost Upvoted

That dig in New Mexico where the volunteer kept troweling through everything

I was on a site near Santa Fe back in March and this guy just kept scraping away without asking. He destroyed part of a possible kiva floor before anyone caught him. Now I always shadow new volunteers for the first two days before letting them near anything fragile. Has anyone else had an eager helper mess up a potential feature?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin_west26d ago

I read a report last year from the New Mexico Archaeological Council about a site near Chaco where a volunteer dug out a whole hearth feature before anyone realized what they were doing. I mean it's such a common problem, especially with folks who are really excited but haven't learned that slow and careful is the name of the game. Maybe it's just me but I feel like some people watch those TV archaeology shows where they just uncover stuff quickly and think that's how it works in the field. I had a summer intern once at a site in Colorado who scraped through a potential storage pit because he wanted to get down to the "good stuff" faster. It's tough because you want to encourage new people but also protect the context of what's there.

the_grace26d ago

Has anyone else found that the best way is to just slow them down on purpose from day one? @kevin_west you're right about TV shows giving people the wrong idea. What worked for me was making new volunteers practice on a mock grid for a whole morning before they ever touched a real site. I'd bury different colored gravel at different depths and have them map it out with toothpicks and string. It sounds boring but it actually teaches them that the context is the whole point. After that they got why we take our time. It helped a lot with the excitement issue without making them feel bad.

the_aaron26d ago

Did you catch that recent study about how almost half of volunteer-caused damage happens in the first two hours on site? I saw it in one of the SAA bulletins and it really stuck with me because it matches exactly what you're describing with that intern. The mock grid idea sounds smart though, I've heard similar approaches work well at teaching patience without killing enthusiasm.