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Ancient and ArchaeologyΒ  permalink

1 000 Years

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by geminiW (U2779785) on Sunday, 11th March 2007

  I find myself wondering about the time when we become archeology...
  
  I think it would be reasonable to think about 1 or 2 thousand years into the future. Giving things enough time but, not enough for all the plastic that we are so diligently producing to disappear.
  
  When we become the subject of archeological study, will the people that discover the foundations of our current cities know who we were or will we be as much a mystery and fascination to them as classical cultures are to us?
  Will they marvel at our technology saying things like: "How is it possible that they were so advanced so long ago?!" Might they consider us to be the foundation of their technology?
  I guess it would also be possible that they will look upon our achievements and think: "Poor sods. They never really got it right did they?"
  
  It might also be that society is destroyed and
  1 or 2 thousand years from now there will be a new tech age just starting. This doesn't seem so absurd, considering the reports by science on the state of the natural world and, the perpetually simmering political situation we currently live with.
  
  I would like to be there to help them understand who we were.
  
  gW
  
  

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  Posted by IntheNorth (U7684402) on Sunday, 11th March 2007

  An interesting question! Its one that will be familiar to anyone who has ever read Herodotos, as one of the most striking messages that comes across is the need for humility. Whenever a person/community gains a certain position of power, Herodotos then narrates their downfall as, so he tells us, who would know that Sparta was once as powerful as Athens from the material remains of the city?

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  Posted by an ex-nordmann - it has ceased to exist (U3472955) on Sunday, 11th March 2007

  We 'become archaeology' the moment someone in the future becomes curious about us - who we were, how we lived etc - and takes the trouble to understand us from our artefacts. Nowadays this doesn't seem to take any time at all and I have even heard of 'archaeological studies' of pre-PC working environments conducted according to the same rules and strictures as any excavation of an ancient culture.
  
  I would seriously doubt therefore that archaeologists in a thousand or two years' time would be operating as blind as we are with respect to the same time difference in our own past, given that the compilation of the archaeological record begins almost immediately these days, and therefore their conjectures would not need to be as wild or poorly informed as your question suggests.

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  Posted by Anglo-Norman (U1965016) on Sunday, 11th March 2007

  In the final seminar of my archaeology module on Friday we were speculating (in a somewhat tongue in cheek fashion) as to whether archaeologists in two thousand years time might mistake all the shopping trolleys and bicycles dredged up from our rivers for ritual deposites!
  
  But unless something goes drastically wrong, it seems likely there will be better records of our society than from a comparible distance between ourselves and our ancestors.

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  Posted by rikkai (U1899410) on Monday, 12th March 2007

  In reply to GeminiW, it has been stated,though not sure who by, that if we were to travel 100 years into the future we would be less surprised by the the extent of technological advances, than a person who travelled to our time from say Victorian times.
  
  It is generally accepted that as each generation progresses at a suitable rate, their levels of expectation rise, making each new generation less impressed by new technological advancements.
  
  Possibly irrelevent to your original question but there we are.

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  Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Monday, 12th March 2007

  given that the compilation of the archaeological record begins almost immediately these daysΒ 
  
  Interesting point nordmann.
  
  That said - I heard somewhere that the ancient Romans themselves studied and practiced a primitive form of archaeology and were fascinated with Egyptology. Does anyone know if this is true?

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  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Monday, 12th March 2007

  Vizzer,
  
  did a bit of research on the internet with "word-combinations", but didn't find anything. Only this:
  
  
  Warm regards,
  
  Paul.

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  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Monday, 12th March 2007

  Nordmann,
  
  thank you for all your interesting posts you bring here on these boards.
  
  "We "become archaeology" the moment someone in the future becomes curious about us"...""archaeological studies" of pre-PC working environments"
  
  By research for a "henge" in Assebroek near Bruges, sparked by some posts about "henges" from a British contributor I got connected to the local archaeologist group of Bruges and receive now regularly a "news letter". In one a female archaeologist gives some lessons in a school in Zedelgem, about of what the practice of archaeology consists. And as a practical test she let the pupils collect the "garbage sac" (term?) of a family and do all the common "archaeological tests" on it and let then the class try to make an estimation how that particular family "lived" and "consumed". I found that a very interesting way of teaching archaeology.
  
  Warm regards,
  
  Paul.

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  Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Monday, 12th March 2007

  Hello Paul
  
  that's an interesting link - especially the bit about the Babylonians. Quite a thought.
  
  thanks
  
  Vizzer

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• Message 10

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  Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Wednesday, 14th March 2007

  I remember reading about a scientist who, must be getting on for 20 years ago now, did an archaeological dig through a modern land fill site.
  
  I don't remember much about his findings, except that he did note that, while the food wrappings showed an increase in the use of low-fat foods, there was also an increase in the volume of food consumed, so that people were consuming more calories than before.
  
  I think doing this archaeology, if you can call it that, is a bit silly. In the modern world, the statistics of food consumption, in all its variety, are available on the internet. That is one reason why I do not think people in the future will be digging the ground for information about this era, because all the data they will need about our lives will be available.

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