which broken artifact caused the most sadness

[BillA]

artifacts can be damaged in so many ways, in antiquity is one thing and today quite another
I have seen a number of such - after the fact - and am uniformly distressed at the wanton, and sometimes intentional, damage
some unfortunately remain in my memory

the first I would mention occured during a visit to a local rancher in central Mexico and the discussion drifted to artifacts
the rancher described a copper 'antler' found on his ranch (and my heart started thumping),
he had found only one with a single bump and curved and tapering
I asked to see it and after a 1/2 hour he returned; it had been straightened and used as a punch or drift
I was stunned

the second was at my house in rural Mexico where I was offered a sack full of lithic Mescala artifacts
I (always) declined but discussed a 1' long male member in green serpentine among the items
2 weeks later someone else came and offered the same items but the green piece was smashed on its end
I asked why it was recently broken and was told to prevent the bad luck
this is what's wrong with looters

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Thank you for sharing!

 

[CASPER-2]

i saw this sticking up from dirt of a very old New England farm field
plow must have hit it - if whole - would be very very very rare artifact
and worth a pretty penny

 

[BillA]

nice blade, or partial
the good part is that you did not break it during recovery
when I started detecting I could not pull a coin out of the ground without leaving a gash from my digger,
and am little better today - but I no longer coinshoot

will post later some fragments that I would love to have the rest of (broken in antiquity)

 

[CASPER-2]

I use a large knife and dig a large plug - I don't hit anything - Im good at pinpointing
you wont see me using a large shovel - I know 100s that have hit rare items over the years

 

[CASPER-2]

just an example of LG plug - colonial musketball find