What do you think about archaeology?

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I'm studying the field so I'm obviously biased towards a positive perspective, so I'd like to get an outside perspective. As the title says what do you think of the field? How have movies, games, documentaries and novels influenced your view of it? Do you think that there is a moral issue regarding the field?

Do you think that it is useful?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

What do I think about archeology?

Does anyone think about anything else when archeology is mentioned?

 

[skywolfblue]

I could never spend hours brushing through the dirt with a toothbrush. I'd go crazy and bring in an excavator.

Useful? It's kinda hit and miss.

There are a number of things that were done in the past that we still have no clue how exactly they accomplished them (Stonehenge or the Easter Island Stones for example), so learning how those were done could possibly improve our understanding of engineering even today, so I can see that kind of stuff as useful.

Learning how many sacrifices they threw into the pit, or how many people were living in that house, or spending time cataloging every pot they left behind, not so much.

(my engineering bias is showing )

 

[FalloutJack]

I think it's a legitimately good field for those who are patient.

That said, it's not for me because it's for those who are patient.

Captcha: That's right

Damn straight.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'd say, it's exceedingly boring. Painstakingly removing things from the ground and all.

Then you pass them over to historians who sit in a nice warm office and dream up explanations for them.

I'd say it's useful, and not in of itself, immoral. Like anything else, it can be done amorally, and there are problems with that.

 

[Korolev]

I think it's valuable and it helps illuminate the past. I also have the impression that it is VERY tough to make a living in the field due to the sparsity of jobs involving archaeology. But as someone who is very interested in history, I respect archaeologists and hope they continue doing their job. I just feel a bit sorry for them since I have the impression that they have a tough job making a living.

 

[Yopaz]

Archaeology is outdated.

Bad joke aside I guess I can see a use for it, but in the end it seems kinda pointless. We are piecing together pieces of a puzzle and we're filling in the blanks using prior findings to make an educated guess to things.

We find things we believe might have been idols of maternity or fertility when this could just as easily have been ancient pornography. There are modern tools now that some of us use almost daily in the kitchen that you could give to someone else and they would invent several uses for that which are completely unrelated to the actual use.

Now imagine doing the very same with ancient items where there might be missing pieces or it might be broken and then we got archaeology. Palaeontology suffers much the same problem which means that lately quite a few dinosaurs have been determined to be various ageing states rather than separate species, but at least here analysing the bone structure can be used to get rid of false trails.

I like the idea of archaeology, but it's simply hard to trust it completely since there's no way of knowing if the findings are correctly interpreted.

I can see no moral issues though.

 

[Idlemessiah]

I'm studying the field so I'm obviously biased towards a positive perspective, so I'd like to get an outside perspective. As the title says what do you think of the field? How have movies, games, documentaries and novels influenced your view of it? Do you think that there is a moral issue regarding the field?

Do you think that it is useful?

I got my degree in archaeology last year. Peoples view of it is HEAVILY influenced by the media because all they talk about is Indy and bloody Time Team.

Here's a hint. Now you're in, keep going. Seriously. Nobody will employ you with just an undergrad degree. Can't afford a masters? Get a damn loan because you'll need it to get anywhere.

 

[NoeL]

There are a number of things that were done in the past that we still have no clue how exactly they accomplished them (Stonehenge or the Easter Island Stones for example)

We actually know how both of those were built. In fact there's a guy on Youtube that has pretty much built Stonehenge in his backyard... by himself. Here:
As for the Easter Island moai, they were carved out of solidified volcanic ash quarries (you can still see plenty of half-finished ones there) and then moved into position with log rollers.

"But NoeL! There aren't any trees on Easter Island so they couldn't have used rollers! It could only have been ALIENS!!!1"

Actually, there's no trees today because they cut them all down in order to move the moai! This is why many of the moai are half buried in the ground - without the tree roots holding everything together all the topsoil got washed downhill, burying the statues in the process.

But yes, I agree with you in principle. Uncovering secrets of the past is cool.

 

[Guffe]

I think movies basically give a very action-y perspective, always some badguy hunting for the same treassure to sell it and earn millions!!

But yeah, I think it's nice that people dig up old stuff so we get to lear about the history of the planet and earlier humans.
Myself, I can't think about spending 60 days in a tent at an old ruin just digging and searching for something that might be there. But I guess that's a part of the hunt.

 

[skywolfblue]

There are a number of things that were done in the past that we still have no clue how exactly they accomplished them (Stonehenge or the Easter Island Stones for example)

We actually know how both of those were built. In fact there's a guy on Youtube that has pretty much built Stonehenge in his backyard... by himself. Here:
As for the Easter Island moai, they were carved out of solidified volcanic ash quarries (you can still see plenty of half-finished ones there) and then moved into position with log rollers.

"But NoeL! There aren't any trees on Easter Island so they couldn't have used rollers! It could only have been ALIENS!!!1"

Actually, there's no trees today because they cut them all down in order to move the moai! This is why many of the moai are half buried in the ground - without the tree roots holding everything together all the topsoil got washed downhill, burying the statues in the process.

But yes, I agree with you in principle. Uncovering secrets of the past is cool.

I'm a bit skeptical about the moving by rotation on rocks.
1) A 40ton block is much more likely to simply crush a small rock then the 1ton blocks that guy was testing
2) It requires an really hard surface underneath. The guy was doing it on concrete and I think the barn was supported by steel when he was moving it.

The "weight from one end to the other" jack method for lifting them and putting them into place certainly looks like an interesting and probably viable method. I wish they'd gone with the full 40tonner instead of the ~10ton block

As to Easter Island: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...sland-statues-moved-hunt-lipo-science-rocked/

We're not sure if they "walked" them down, rolled them down on logs, or what. But it's interesting stuff either way!

 

[Thaluikhain]

We actually know how both of those were built. In fact there's a guy on Youtube that has pretty much built Stonehenge in his backyard... by himself.

We know of several methods by which they might have been built. Not quite the same thing.

We also only have theories as to exactly why they were built.

 

[Lieju]

I love it.

I study geology and paleontology, so they overlap a bit, and I have worked on archaeologial digs. I am just fascinated by how things have changed over time, but my interest is more on the natural history than human history side.

 

[Shraggler]

Fundamentally, it's very interesting. There's a wide swathe of information that comes from history and a priori knowledge.

The origin of language, the origin of races, the origin of writing, etc. All of these have evolved over time, and it's interesting to see how that happened and why, mainly because there are generally logical reasons behind such changes and we can then learn more about the people, and therefore ourselves.

Because I'm very interested in language, archaeology also plays an important role to me. I'm especially interested in language isolates/extinct languages. Sumerian, Elamite, Basque/Euskara, the Tyresian language family, and so on.

It's also interesting to discover how people dealt with problems, and as "necessity is the mother of invention", it's interesting to discover how and what people created. Why was this pot made in this particular shape? Why was this particular material used to build this wall? How in the name of fuckbutts did they build that?

TL;DR - Archaeology = The meaningless Shraggler seal of approval.

 

[Moloch Sacrifice]

I personally believe that any and all knowledge that can be obtained should be obtained, so I consider archaeology equally as important as physics, mathematics, astronomy, etc. Furthermore, unlike any of these other fields it allows us to obtain knowledge that has been forgotten, effectively allowing minds thousands of years old to contribute to the world today.

 

[Stu35]

I'm studying the field so I'm obviously biased towards a positive perspective, so I'd like to get an outside perspective. As the title says what do you think of the field? How have movies, games, documentaries and novels influenced your view of it? Do you think that there is a moral issue regarding the field?

Do you think that it is useful?

2 thoughts:

1. Indiana Jones.

2. It's History for people who don't want to actually have to deal with having to think.

Allow me to elaborate: It's easy to dig up an old Anglo-Saxon coin, and from that, claim that Anglo Saxons used coins in exchange for goods and services.

It's difficult to try to establish, from oral history and the latin writings of some very biased priests, what the value of a cow was in Anglo Saxon coins.

This statement is not meant to be taken seriously, by the way...


On a serious note: I've nothing against Archaeology, I've a couple of friends who studied it, one of whom has gone on to actually do it, and I find the concept interesting enough to warrant the occasional watch of 'Time Team' and the like.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Archeology and paleontology are both sciences that study our past, so we could learn to avoid the mistakes of the past and learn the ways of the ancestors.
I find this to be most important field of science, how can we understand the future if we don't understand our past? What is cure for a disease worth if we don't know the suffering of the past, we know that suffering and we avoid it.

And I think it is the most fascinating field when it comes to humanity, the ideas thought and philosophies of the past. Nowadays it is thought to be horrible slavery and sexism if father arranges a marriage. When is history the daughters were worried if they didn't get arranged for marriage. How people could give their whole life to piety of their faith, celibacy, vow of silence - for rest of your life. How men could be raised to wars for years then return to see their children grown up.
How women could turn the history around Theodora of Byzantines, Joan of Arc, Madame de Pompadour, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti.

I am not saying the past was better, I am not saying it was worse either.