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I think it's interesting that it feels like we have such high expectations of archaeology to provide mostly accurate pictures of history when if we were wiped o

I think it's interesting that it feels like we have such high expectations of archaeology to provide mostly accurate pictures of history when if we were wiped out tomorrow our historical record would exist for what 10000 years before everything is completely degraded? Most of that information loss would happen in like the first 100 years after we were gone just based on how quickly most of our digital storage mediums degrade. If we can't build a long and comprehensive enduring legacy of our civilization why should we expect older civilizations to have been better at it while theoretically having worse means to do so and expect that legacy to be wholistic when archaeologists explore it?

maartenh 5y ago
One thing I really like about Doctor Who, is the absurd mis-remebered fake histories they make up for our current era. Hilarious! Puts into perspective how we think about the cultures that came before us.
ArtWomb 5y ago
I mean check out that 3000 year old smelting furnace. Not only does it work as a piece of aesthetically intriguing sculpture, it probably still works as a blast furnace! I think about this a lot actually. When ancients built, they had to built for survival, so the focus, care and attention was exponentially multiplied. The result is of course things that were implicitly designed to last for generations. It must be an amazing feeling to be an archeologist at the moment of new discovery. You suddenly enjoy a serendipitous connection with a human being who has been dead for ages. But is suddenly memorable again, as if reborn. I think that human connection is the seed of "psychohistory". What message or wisdom can we wish to convey to our Future Selves?
mikepurvis 5y ago
Not an archeologist, but isn't most of what we find pretty sharply split between everyday stuff that was frozen in time or left behind in an unplanned catastrope (Anasazi, Pompeii, etc), and then the formal, intentional records left in tombs and so on? I know both pieces are important, but the intentional record of some ruler tells you more about their ego than what everyday life was like. I expect that even if we were all snuffed out tomorrow, there would be loads of our record remaining 1000+ years from now— both the intentional efforts like seed vaults, time capsules, stacks of hard copy documents sealed in safes, but also the enormous presence of all kinds of plastic, which even divorced from context would still give myriad insight into what daily life was like at the start of the 21st century.

maartenh 5y ago

One thing I really like about Doctor Who, is the absurd mis-remebered fake histories they make up for our current era. Hilarious! Puts into perspective how we think about the cultures that came before us.

ArtWomb 5y ago

I mean check out that 3000 year old smelting furnace. Not only does it work as a piece of aesthetically intriguing sculpture, it probably still works as a blast furnace! I think about this a lot actually. When ancients built, they had to built for survival, so the focus, care and attention was exponentially multiplied. The result is of course things that were implicitly designed to last for generations. It must be an amazing feeling to be an archeologist at the moment of new discovery. You suddenly enjoy a serendipitous connection with a human being who has been dead for ages. But is suddenly memorable again, as if reborn. I think that human connection is the seed of "psychohistory". What message or wisdom can we wish to convey to our Future Selves?

mikepurvis 5y ago

Not an archeologist, but isn't most of what we find pretty sharply split between everyday stuff that was frozen in time or left behind in an unplanned catastrope (Anasazi, Pompeii, etc), and then the formal, intentional records left in tombs and so on? I know both pieces are important, but the intentional record of some ruler tells you more about their ego than what everyday life was like. I expect that even if we were all snuffed out tomorrow, there would be loads of our record remaining 1000+ years from now— both the intentional efforts like seed vaults, time capsules, stacks of hard copy documents sealed in safes, but also the enormous presence of all kinds of plastic, which even divorced from context would still give myriad insight into what daily life was like at the start of the 21st century.