Just realized I might have mislabeled a ceramic sherd from a dig in Tucson last month

I was sorting through field bags from the Mission Garden site and put a piece of Tanque Verde Red-on-brown in with the plainware. My supervisor, Maria, pointed it out yesterday and said the slip was obvious under a loupe. Has anyone else mixed up similar looking pottery types and how do you keep them straight?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_dixon2d ago

Honestly, I keep a little reference card with the common slip colors right in my field kit.

alice_palmer201d ago

My buddy got totally mixed up last season because he was trying to remember slip colors from memory. He swore a certain mushroom was safe, but his photo showed a totally different color gill. We had to double-check three different guides before we were sure. It was a close call that could have been bad. A simple card like yours would have saved him a lot of worry.