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I finally got that stubborn piece of pottery out of the trench wall
We were digging a test pit near Taos and found a rim sherd stuck in a hard clay layer. I spent three days trying to carefully pick around it with a trowel and brush, thinking it would pop right out. It was so fragile that any real pressure would crack it. I ended up having to mix a small batch of plaster to make a supporting jacket before we could lift the whole block. Has anyone else had a simple find turn into a multi-day extraction job?
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derekward6mo ago
Actually, that's a proper field jacket you made.
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troy4946mo ago
That plaster jacket method is a lifesaver for tricky soil. I had a similar thing happen with a bison vertebra in Wyoming, cemented in caliche. We ended up using burlap strips soaked in plaster of Paris, building it up like a cast. The key is letting each layer dry before adding the next, otherwise the whole thing just slumps. It looked like a weird lumpy pillow when we were done, but the bone was perfect inside.
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