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OK, dumb question. Why are ancient sites always excavated, under several feet of soil. Is the soil comprised of 1000's of years of decayed plant matter? That

OK, dumb question. Why are ancient sites always excavated, under several feet of soil. Is the soil comprised of 1000's of years of decayed plant matter? That all has to come from carbon dioxide.

24gttghh 8y ago
Well, in cities, a house might get destroyed to make room for a new building, and it is often easiest just to tear it down and build on top of it than to cart away all the old building materials. Not to say valuable building stones and other things aren't simply reused in other structures. Or, a lot can happen in 1,000 years like floods (depositing silt), earthquakes (making lots of rubble), wars, and fires, that would wreck a building. Not sure what your CO2 angle is though. This is the jist of it: https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-to-dig-so-deep-to-uncover-ancient-ruins/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-to-...
- jmts 8y ago
  One of my friends is an archaeologist. My view of an archaeologist was always one where they are leisurely researching history, finding locations for finds, cautiously digging in the fields, sorting shards of pottery, etc. She described instead a potentially stressful job performing surveys on urban sites to determine the historical significance of a location to give a go/no-go to developers looking to build a multi-million dollar apartment complex on top of what once might have been the governors home, which was once on top of an officer's quarters, which was once an indigenous settlement.
grondilu 8y ago
Not an expert, but as I understand it most ground is sedimentary rock. It accumulates slowly with time, with things like dust, organic dead matter and yes, part of it comes from carbon sequestration.
mr_toad 8y ago
Survivor bias? You couldn’t excavate something that had already been washed away.
rossdavidh 8y ago
Not a dumb question, as I recall reading that in Darwin's time the rate of formation for soil or rock was a big topic of scientific debate. It was apparently somewhat of a breakthrough to realize that "ground level" changes over time.

OK, dumb question. Why are ancient sites always excavated, under several feet of soil. Is the soil comprised of 1000's of years of decayed plant matter? That all has to come from carbon dioxide.

24gttghh 8y ago

Well, in cities, a house might get destroyed to make room for a new building, and it is often easiest just to tear it down and build on top of it than to cart away all the old building materials. Not to say valuable building stones and other things aren't simply reused in other structures. Or, a lot can happen in 1,000 years like floods (depositing silt), earthquakes (making lots of rubble), wars, and fires, that would wreck a building. Not sure what your CO2 angle is though. This is the jist of it: https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-to-dig-so-deep-to-uncover-ancient-ruins/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/why-do-we-have-to-...

jmts 8y ago
One of my friends is an archaeologist. My view of an archaeologist was always one where they are leisurely researching history, finding locations for finds, cautiously digging in the fields, sorting shards of pottery, etc. She described instead a potentially stressful job performing surveys on urban sites to determine the historical significance of a location to give a go/no-go to developers looking to build a multi-million dollar apartment complex on top of what once might have been the governors home, which was once on top of an officer's quarters, which was once an indigenous settlement.

grondilu 8y ago

Not an expert, but as I understand it most ground is sedimentary rock. It accumulates slowly with time, with things like dust, organic dead matter and yes, part of it comes from carbon sequestration.

mr_toad 8y ago

Survivor bias? You couldn’t excavate something that had already been washed away.

rossdavidh 8y ago

Not a dumb question, as I recall reading that in Darwin's time the rate of formation for soil or rock was a big topic of scientific debate. It was apparently somewhat of a breakthrough to realize that "ground level" changes over time.