The international workshop ‘Excavating the Extra-Ordinary 2. Challenges & Merits of Working with Small Finds’ is the continuation of the successful format from 2019. Thematically, it deals with the challenging work with seemingly ‘ordinary’ small finds and their processing. This year, the range of content has been interdisciplinarily expanded to include the field of Near Eastern Archaeology. To this end, specialists from excavations, museums and institutions presented and discussed the latest findings at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in November 2022. This volume offers contributions from the workshop, including dealing with large quantities of material, analysing fragmentary finds and addressing methodological problems. The variety of materials discussed ranges from stone, wood and pottery artefacts to metal objects. The new volume this time also presents findings such as the functional reuse of objects of material culture.