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Sealed up for 50 years after it was discovered is one of the greatest gifts to modern archeology ever. I can't fathom the loss of truly insightful historical kn

by ngold 8y ago

Sealed up for 50 years after it was discovered is one of the greatest gifts to modern archeology ever. I can't fathom the loss of truly insightful historical knowledge that would have been lost if it was tampered with 50 years ago. What a hero to the future of humanity in understanding our past.

terhechte 8y ago
Wouldn't sealing it up another 50 years even better? We don't know which much better technologies we have in 50 years
- joshschreuder 8y ago
  I feel this way about technical debt sometimes :) There has to be some point where you start on something otherwise in 50 years they would be wondering about the tech available 50 years from that.
  - ianai 8y ago
    If you ignore technical debt for 50 years there’s a good chance the problem will resolve itself! Because no one will be using the software.
- ianai 8y ago
  Speaking as an outsider, I grew up near Hispanic cultures in the Southwest. I think there’s a need for better information about the Maya. For one, there’s a basic lack of understanding of time “before America” across the US. Most I've met seem to operate as though human history in the Americas only started with independence. The colonists wiped out a huge amount of history and culture. We might not have the best technology that could ever exist, but we do have a great need to appreciate a shared past. Fifty years from now people will be further from the past and more likely to take it even less seriously.
  - vertak 8y ago
    @ianai you should give the book 1491 a read, it is likely exactly what you're looking for and a well written book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
  - madhadron 8y ago
    This is a general issue with what is taught as world history, from school textbooks to the doorstops of Toynbee and his ilk. They all start with "western Europe and the societies derived from it are the world" with a brief mention that China is over there, too, and then trace the history of the societies that western European mythology claims as predecessors (Rome, Greece, Egypt). If you compare this to the space and time occupied by humanity on earth, it's ludicrous.
xmichael999 8y ago
Is that why he sealed it up, the article doesn't explain that was his logic. Are you finding this info somewhere else?
- toyg 8y ago
  It's not so much about the technology as much as the attention and care that can be given to the findings. Even in the past, most material treated with the utmost care and respect would have "survived" (in the sense that it wouldn't have lost a huge amount of precious hints about its true nature). Postwar times in South America were... complicated, particularly the '60s. A responsible archeologist, be it Pinto or someone else, likely made an assessment that the country was not ready to pay this material the case and attention that it deserved, and decided to simply protect it by leaving it where it was. This happens elsewhere all over the world - in Italy, ancient findings are routinely re-buried when its care cannot be guaranteed for some reason. The practice was a bit less common back then, but not an impossibility - particularly for an already-established archeologist who didn't need more accolades.

by ngold 8y ago

terhechte 8y ago

Wouldn't sealing it up another 50 years even better? We don't know which much better technologies we have in 50 years

joshschreuder 8y ago
I feel this way about technical debt sometimes :) There has to be some point where you start on something otherwise in 50 years they would be wondering about the tech available 50 years from that.
- ianai 8y ago
  If you ignore technical debt for 50 years there’s a good chance the problem will resolve itself! Because no one will be using the software.
ianai 8y ago
Speaking as an outsider, I grew up near Hispanic cultures in the Southwest. I think there’s a need for better information about the Maya. For one, there’s a basic lack of understanding of time “before America” across the US. Most I've met seem to operate as though human history in the Americas only started with independence. The colonists wiped out a huge amount of history and culture. We might not have the best technology that could ever exist, but we do have a great need to appreciate a shared past. Fifty years from now people will be further from the past and more likely to take it even less seriously.
- vertak 8y ago
  @ianai you should give the book 1491 a read, it is likely exactly what you're looking for and a well written book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_A...
- madhadron 8y ago
  This is a general issue with what is taught as world history, from school textbooks to the doorstops of Toynbee and his ilk. They all start with "western Europe and the societies derived from it are the world" with a brief mention that China is over there, too, and then trace the history of the societies that western European mythology claims as predecessors (Rome, Greece, Egypt). If you compare this to the space and time occupied by humanity on earth, it's ludicrous.

xmichael999 8y ago

Is that why he sealed it up, the article doesn't explain that was his logic. Are you finding this info somewhere else?

toyg 8y ago
It's not so much about the technology as much as the attention and care that can be given to the findings. Even in the past, most material treated with the utmost care and respect would have "survived" (in the sense that it wouldn't have lost a huge amount of precious hints about its true nature). Postwar times in South America were... complicated, particularly the '60s. A responsible archeologist, be it Pinto or someone else, likely made an assessment that the country was not ready to pay this material the case and attention that it deserved, and decided to simply protect it by leaving it where it was. This happens elsewhere all over the world - in Italy, ancient findings are routinely re-buried when its care cannot be guaranteed for some reason. The practice was a bit less common back then, but not an impossibility - particularly for an already-established archeologist who didn't need more accolades.