3 ms·

This seems like a huge opportunity to gather up a bunch of natives that are familiar with navigating the land, professional archeologists, a camera crew, and ju

This seems like a huge opportunity to gather up a bunch of natives that are familiar with navigating the land, professional archeologists, a camera crew, and just let the story unfold itself. Why isn't the entertainment industry more interested in creating exploratory content like this?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
AlotOfReading 4y ago
Imagine watching a series about a bunch of people sitting in muddy pits doing paperwork for 3 months, or counting charcoal/pollen on a microscope in a lab. That's 'real archaeology'. There's a very limited amount of information known about what's uncovered while people are onsite and film crews would be prohibited from filming most of the spectacular things that might be found for ethical reasons. Moreover, it usually takes 1-2 years after excavations are completed to organize everything to a degree of public presentability. All of that is a really bad fit for typical production schedules and TV drama, so what popular media does is go to people who have opinions about sites that are already long excavated and find the ones that give them the most 'interesting' soundbites and perspectives post-editing. It's entertainment rather than education.
- multjoy 4y ago
  Have I got the show for you... https://g.co/kgs/KhN9J9 https://g.co/kgs/KhN9J9
  - piceas 4y ago
    A Google search link for time team. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Team https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Team
    - Accacin 4y ago
      Oh, I absolutely loved this when I was a kid. We'd all sit down together as a family every Sunday to watch it. I've always had a love for archeaology and history, and I think I have that show to thank for it :) For anyone curious, the whole series is available on YouTube :) It's really not the most exciting show though.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  You’ve clearly never watched “American Diggers” /s
- antiterra 4y ago
  That’s what’s cool about imaging technologies, you can get interesting and amazing information the day you pop up some lidar drones. You can overlay this with satellite imaging and ground penetrating radar. Combine this with local archaeologists and other experts and it does really end up being compelling, even if largely speculative.
  - AlotOfReading 4y ago
    I have quite a bit of remote sensing experience from the field and I've since left archaeology to work in autonomous vehicles where I get to play with sensors my former annual salary couldn't have purchased. I strongly believe remote sensing technology is important, but it's usually just a first step in guiding and supplementing traditional fieldwork rather than replacing it. Having pretty landscape models to ogle at is nice, but typically not all that useful academically without time-consuming additional analysis to map things like artifact scatters or statistical models back onto it.
- TheAceOfHearts 4y ago
  > [...] crews would be prohibited from filming most of the spectacular things that might be found for ethical reasons. Could you explain this?
  - AlotOfReading 4y ago
    Archaeologists and anthropologists are required to treat remains, cultural artifacts and funeral goods in particular with 'dignity and respect' by professional ethical norms. That's a legal requirement that's taken very seriously in many American countries to boot. What that means in practical terms is that we typically avoid taking pictures or doing procedures that aren't strictly necessary for research and engage in a complicated process called consultation to find related descendents to get their permission for various things/do repatriation of artifacts and remains. Unfortunately the finds we can't show are also the ones media and laypeople are the most interested in.
    - hetspookjee 4y ago
      I am very happy that community holds such a high standard. What surprises me sometimes is that the quite some deepsea diving communities in research does not uphold such ethical standards. Whenever I see footage of diving boats with 15K lumen lights shining on deep sea animals I cringe a bit.
      - jfim 4y ago
        Not knowing anything about this, do deep sea animals have the ability to perceive light? If not, the light would be harmless unless I'm missing something.
        frosted-flakes 4y ago
        Some definitely do, otherwise anglerfish wouldn't have the dangling lightbulb as a lure.
        fbanon 4y ago
- notahacker 4y ago
  Yep. Reminds me of when I was working for a remote sensing startup and we had conversations about being featured in an episode of a popular BBC magazine show. I could understand why they were interested: "space detectives" fighting environmental crime with satellites sounds very cool on a TV listing. It's just their concept of a TV proposal had us zooming in on live action they staged for us like a spy film, and the reality was a guy in a home office tweaking scripts to batch process low resolution static images from previous months followed by enforcement officers possibly taking some action months later (I figured out that beyond the pretty images we could theoretically visit an actual location with historic prosecutions and get just-for-TV drone footage as well as interviews for background context, but we never got close to the relevant stakeholder permissions) And I say this having also watched Time Team so I know you can make good TV from an archaeological dig with the right experts and permissions and pretty good background knowledge of what was built there when!
antiterra 4y ago
Check out ‘Lost Cities with Albert Lin’ for something that is pretty much this. It was on Disney+ last I checked. I believe there is hope for a new season. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/603999/tech-maps-lost-cities-national-geographic https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/603999/tech-maps-lost-ci...
goodcanadian 4y ago
Probably only available in the UK, but: Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon https://www.channel4.com/programmes/jungle-mystery-lost-kingdoms-of-the-amazon https://www.channel4.com/programmes/jungle-mystery-lost-king...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

AlotOfReading 4y ago

Imagine watching a series about a bunch of people sitting in muddy pits doing paperwork for 3 months, or counting charcoal/pollen on a microscope in a lab. That's 'real archaeology'. There's a very limited amount of information known about what's uncovered while people are onsite and film crews would be prohibited from filming most of the spectacular things that might be found for ethical reasons. Moreover, it usually takes 1-2 years after excavations are completed to organize everything to a degree of public presentability. All of that is a really bad fit for typical production schedules and TV drama, so what popular media does is go to people who have opinions about sites that are already long excavated and find the ones that give them the most 'interesting' soundbites and perspectives post-editing. It's entertainment rather than education.

multjoy 4y ago
Have I got the show for you... https://g.co/kgs/KhN9J9 https://g.co/kgs/KhN9J9
- piceas 4y ago
  A Google search link for time team. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Team https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Team
  - Accacin 4y ago
    Oh, I absolutely loved this when I was a kid. We'd all sit down together as a family every Sunday to watch it. I've always had a love for archeaology and history, and I think I have that show to thank for it :) For anyone curious, the whole series is available on YouTube :) It's really not the most exciting show though.
RC_ITR 4y ago
You’ve clearly never watched “American Diggers” /s
antiterra 4y ago
That’s what’s cool about imaging technologies, you can get interesting and amazing information the day you pop up some lidar drones. You can overlay this with satellite imaging and ground penetrating radar. Combine this with local archaeologists and other experts and it does really end up being compelling, even if largely speculative.
- AlotOfReading 4y ago
  I have quite a bit of remote sensing experience from the field and I've since left archaeology to work in autonomous vehicles where I get to play with sensors my former annual salary couldn't have purchased. I strongly believe remote sensing technology is important, but it's usually just a first step in guiding and supplementing traditional fieldwork rather than replacing it. Having pretty landscape models to ogle at is nice, but typically not all that useful academically without time-consuming additional analysis to map things like artifact scatters or statistical models back onto it.
TheAceOfHearts 4y ago
> [...] crews would be prohibited from filming most of the spectacular things that might be found for ethical reasons. Could you explain this?
- AlotOfReading 4y ago
  Archaeologists and anthropologists are required to treat remains, cultural artifacts and funeral goods in particular with 'dignity and respect' by professional ethical norms. That's a legal requirement that's taken very seriously in many American countries to boot. What that means in practical terms is that we typically avoid taking pictures or doing procedures that aren't strictly necessary for research and engage in a complicated process called consultation to find related descendents to get their permission for various things/do repatriation of artifacts and remains. Unfortunately the finds we can't show are also the ones media and laypeople are the most interested in.
  - hetspookjee 4y ago
    I am very happy that community holds such a high standard. What surprises me sometimes is that the quite some deepsea diving communities in research does not uphold such ethical standards. Whenever I see footage of diving boats with 15K lumen lights shining on deep sea animals I cringe a bit.
    - jfim 4y ago
      Not knowing anything about this, do deep sea animals have the ability to perceive light? If not, the light would be harmless unless I'm missing something.
      - frosted-flakes 4y ago
        Some definitely do, otherwise anglerfish wouldn't have the dangling lightbulb as a lure.
      - fbanon 4y ago
notahacker 4y ago
Yep. Reminds me of when I was working for a remote sensing startup and we had conversations about being featured in an episode of a popular BBC magazine show. I could understand why they were interested: "space detectives" fighting environmental crime with satellites sounds very cool on a TV listing. It's just their concept of a TV proposal had us zooming in on live action they staged for us like a spy film, and the reality was a guy in a home office tweaking scripts to batch process low resolution static images from previous months followed by enforcement officers possibly taking some action months later (I figured out that beyond the pretty images we could theoretically visit an actual location with historic prosecutions and get just-for-TV drone footage as well as interviews for background context, but we never got close to the relevant stakeholder permissions) And I say this having also watched Time Team so I know you can make good TV from an archaeological dig with the right experts and permissions and pretty good background knowledge of what was built there when!

antiterra 4y ago

Check out ‘Lost Cities with Albert Lin’ for something that is pretty much this. It was on Disney+ last I checked. I believe there is hope for a new season. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/603999/tech-maps-lost-cities-national-geographic https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/603999/tech-maps-lost-ci...

goodcanadian 4y ago

Probably only available in the UK, but: Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon https://www.channel4.com/programmes/jungle-mystery-lost-kingdoms-of-the-amazon https://www.channel4.com/programmes/jungle-mystery-lost-king...