4 ms·

If, like me, you were wondering how buildings end up getting buried over long periods of time: "Until roads get paved, cities literally rise. That's because pe

If, like me, you were wondering how buildings end up getting buried over long periods of time: "Until roads get paved, cities literally rise. That's because people bring things into them at great effort -- mostly food -- but, in the absence of cheap trucking, most of the waste gets dumped more or less in the city. Oyster shells get tossed out of the tent. Chamberpots get emptied out the window. Slowly, the accumulation of waste and junk raises the streets above the old buildings, and ground floors become basements. There are mounds throughout the Middle East that are nothing but layer upon layer of city waste, and of course there are mounds in North America that are hundreds of years of discarded oyster shells." http://ask.metafilter.com/237694/How-do-things-get-buried-in-dirt-over-thousands-of-years http://ask.metafilter.com/237694/How-do-things-get-buried-in... http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/813/how-come-archaeological-ruins-are-always-underground http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/813/how-come-archae...

asl 11y ago
In some places piles of rubbish are high enough that in modern day, they are mined for their content.
jhallenworld 11y ago
These are called Tells: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell
- maxerickson 11y ago
  I really hope some awful person somewhere has named one William.
toyg 11y ago
Note that this process is still ongoing. Often, when demolishing old buildings in dense (and expensive) cities, basements are simply filled, the whole ground is raised above the original ground floor, and ramps are added. It's just cheaper than digging the old structure out. Once all surrounding buildings go through this process, the whole road is higher than it was, and the original structure is "submerged". Even when a road is repaved, the original layer is often not removed completely but the new road will still be laid down as thick as the original -- this is what happened where you see "sunken" drains or manholes (they will eventually be repositioned higher up when intolerably deep). In a few hundred years, again ground floors will have become basements. It's just how cities work.

asl 11y ago

In some places piles of rubbish are high enough that in modern day, they are mined for their content.

jhallenworld 11y ago

These are called Tells: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell

maxerickson 11y ago
I really hope some awful person somewhere has named one William.

toyg 11y ago

Note that this process is still ongoing. Often, when demolishing old buildings in dense (and expensive) cities, basements are simply filled, the whole ground is raised above the original ground floor, and ramps are added. It's just cheaper than digging the old structure out. Once all surrounding buildings go through this process, the whole road is higher than it was, and the original structure is "submerged". Even when a road is repaved, the original layer is often not removed completely but the new road will still be laid down as thick as the original -- this is what happened where you see "sunken" drains or manholes (they will eventually be repositioned higher up when intolerably deep). In a few hundred years, again ground floors will have become basements. It's just how cities work.