My sister said something about the new Roman villa find that really stuck with me

She asked if we're just digging up old trash, and it made me think about how we decide what's worth keeping. What's the weirdest 'trash' you've seen turn out to be important at a dig?

3 comments

3 Comments

karencampbell20d ago

That's a really good question from your sister. It makes you wonder who gets to decide what's trash, right? I saw a documentary where they found broken pottery pieces that were just thrown away back then. But by studying the clay and the shapes, they figured out whole trade routes. So their garbage became our history book. What does your sister think about that idea, that one person's trash is another's treasure centuries later?

the_rowan20d ago

That documentary sounds cool, KarenCampbell, but it's a bit of a stretch for me. Most old trash just tells us they had stuff and threw it out, not some big story. My worry is we start seeing meaning in every broken plate, making up a past that wasn't really there.

spencera7720d ago

My buddy who does demo work found a whole stash of 1920s soda bottles under an old porch floor. They were just trash to the guy who tossed them, but now they show exactly what brands were popular in that neighborhood. So @the_rowan, sometimes the story isn't in one plate, it's in the PATTERN of what got thrown away. That pile of bottles tells you about daily life more than any single piece could.