Can we talk about the time I tripped into a dig pit at Mesa Verde and accidentally found a potsherd?

Jason Flores · 2026-10-23T22:50:03.951352+00:00

So two summers back I signed up for a ranger-led tour at Mesa Verde in Colorado, mostly to get out of the heat with my kids. About 20 minutes in, I stepped off the path to let a family pass and my boot caught a rock, and I went down right next to a roped-off dig area. A grad student ran over, looked where my hand landed, and pointed at a piece of painted pottery sitting right in the dirt. She said it was probably 800 years old and that my clumsy fall put it in plain view. I felt like a total idiot and a hero at the same time. Now I always watch my step on those tours, but honestly, has anyone else had a dumb accident lead to something cool like that?

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Can we talk about the time I tripped into a dig pit at Mesa Verde and accidentally found a potsherd? | Archaeology Discoveries - Free To Speak