So, when a cool artifact is found in the movies, the scene often goes something like this:

In a dim but somehow golden light (even if its in a cave) hands are carefully sweeping away dirt with a small broom. The earth/dust falls swiftly away to reveal a gorgeous ceramic pot. Soon the pot is free and gently pulled out to an admiring array of excavators....

How a cool artifact is often really found.

Take your shovel and sweep 4 or 5 good shovelfulls into your screen. So far its the third screening from your square and you really haven't found anything. Some sherds of pottery, some flakes, your plastic baggy has enough that it won't blow away in the wind, so its resting open beside you on the backdirt pile from the last square.

Shake your screen back and forth about ten times. Sort out cobblestones. Shake some more, then look into the screen and begin picking out stuff.

Rock. Rock. Pottery.Pottery.Pottery.Pottery. Oops, no, that was a rock. That one there, that's definitely a sherd and decorated too. Rock. Flake. Flake. Pottery.

Bone. Oh, that's nice.
A long thin strip of bone. You pause because there are marks on the bone. Cut marks, no incised marks. In a pattern, a sort of squiggly line in between two straight lines. Just for decoration.

Time for Show & Tell!

"Hey everyone, I think I have something here." You hand over the thin, rather delicate artifact to a collegue in the pit beside you.

"Holy..... Wow." He passes it over to the next person.
"Oh, cool!"
And so on. I officially have the coolest artifact of the day. In fact, when the owner comes by to drop some stuff off, he is shown the artifact and says,
"Now, this, this is really neat. P. (guy who showed him a bone bead a moment earlier), you suck. You K., you rule!"

I found other pretty stuff today, but nothing quite as neat as my sliver of bone, that was probably someone's comb.

This is such a cool job sometimes.

Love to everyone.