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Tried to clean a 2,000 year old amphora shard with dish soap at a dig in Tunisia
The site supervisor caught me scrubbing a pottery piece with Dawn and a toothbrush, then calmly explained that the soap residue would ruin any future dating analysis, so now I'm the guy who carries a spray bottle of distilled water and a soft brush, and honestly, has anyone else accidentally destroyed a find's context with good intentions?
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parkerh382mo ago
The lab back home finally traced a weird calcium bloom on some of our samples to the fluoride in certain tap waters, so we had to redo a whole season of soil readings. Three weeks of data gone because someone rinsed their tools in the wrong sink. Honestly, the real killer isnt the soap, its the micro-scratches from the toothbrush bristles, they hold onto modern pollen and throw off the whole pollen count for the layer. Ive started carrying a cheap plastic spoon and a spray bottle everywhere, even to lunch, just to break the habit of grabbing the nearest brush.
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