diff --git a/cmd/syft/internal/options/pkg.go b/cmd/syft/internal/options/pkg.go
index 3a3cc4f66..5308e2308 100644
--- a/cmd/syft/internal/options/pkg.go
+++ b/cmd/syft/internal/options/pkg.go
@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ note: enabling this may result in a performance impact since all discovered comp
 note: this only applies to the java package cataloger, and is ignored when nested-archive-max-depth is not 0 (every archive is searched)`)
 	descriptions.Add(&o.ExcludeBinaryOverlapByOwnership, `allows users to exclude synthetic binary packages from the sbom
 these packages are removed if an overlap with a non-synthetic package is found`)
-	descriptions.Add(&o.NestedArchiveMaxDepth, `maximum depth to recursively catalog nested archives (0 = disabled, -1 = as deep as 16 levels)`)
+	descriptions.Add(&o.NestedArchiveMaxDepth, `maximum depth to recursively catalog nested archives (0 = disabled, -1 = as deep as 16 levels)
+note: when enabled this replaces the java cataloger's own unbounded jar-in-jar recursion, so archives deeper than this are reported as unknowns rather than cataloged`)
 	descriptions.Add(&o.NestedArchiveMaxMemoryBytes, `maximum bytes of nested archive content held in memory at once (0 = default, -1 = unbounded)`)
 	descriptions.Add(&o.NestedArchiveMaxDiskBytes, `maximum bytes of nested archive content on disk at once (0 = default, -1 = unbounded)`)
 }
diff --git a/internal/task/archive_nesting_test.go b/internal/task/archive_nesting_test.go
index fc0736045..b93584633 100644
--- a/internal/task/archive_nesting_test.go
+++ b/internal/task/archive_nesting_test.go
@@ -270,6 +270,11 @@ func Test_mixedFamilyNesting_depthCountsLevelsNotFamilies(t *testing.T) {
 			}
 			_, ok := s.Artifacts.FileMetadata[innermost]
 			assert.True(t, ok, "the undescended archive must still be recorded as a file at %s", coordKey(innermost))
+
+			// and what was left unexplored is said out loud, not silently dropped
+			reasons := s.Artifacts.Unknowns[innermost]
+			require.Len(t, reasons, 1, "unknowns: %v", s.Artifacts.Unknowns)
+			assert.Contains(t, reasons[0], "depth limit was reached")
 		})
 	}
 }
diff --git a/internal/task/archive_tasks.go b/internal/task/archive_tasks.go
index bbe552acd..8dfe58476 100644
--- a/internal/task/archive_tasks.go
+++ b/internal/task/archive_tasks.go
@@ -145,6 +145,13 @@ func (c *archiveCataloger) catalog(ctx context.Context, resolver file.Resolver,
 		maxDepth = unboundedArchiveDepth
 	}
 	if depth >= maxDepth {
+		// java's own recursion is off while this task runs, so an archive left here is otherwise lost
+		// without a trace
+		for _, candidate := range c.discoverArchives(resolver) {
+			if candidate.sniffedAsArchive {
+				recordArchiveUnknown(builder, candidate.location.Coordinates, "nested archive not cataloged: the nested archive depth limit was reached")
+			}
+		}
 		return nil
 	}
 	var errs error