#archaeological digs

Hey @questioning-violet, I appreciate that your comment comes from a place of concern and good feelings, but you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what archaeology is and how it works, so -

1) Archaeology is not ‘literal graverobbing’. On the contrary, archaeologists, researchers and museums work very hard to prevent grave robbery and the trafficking of stolen artefacts. People are occasionally hurt or die trying to stop or intercept grave robbers, so you might want to take that back.

2) Archaeological digs allow us to learn a lot of information on ancient cultures; they are, in some cases, the only way we can know anything at all about those civilizations, and they are carried out in accordance with highly demanding scientific standards. Unlike grave robbers, who smash their way in, get what they can easily transport or sell and damage the rest, archaeologists are not treasure hunters. A scrap of fabric or traces of pollen on a broken vase can be much more valuable than a gold cup - because, again, the goal is not making money but understanding the past. Most archaeologists work under harsh conditions and accept shitty salaries despite having a 4 years + university education because they recognize how important their job is and how much it benefits the community, so a bit of respect for that would go a long way.

3) While archeology - like most other subjects - used to be tainted by racism, today great efforts are made to have a more decent approach and fix the damages that have already been done. In fact, you could even say that archaeology is inherently an anti-xenophobic discipline, since it contributes to help the public have a different view of their past (for instance by pointing out the Roman empire was a lot more diverse than we assume). Meanwhile, museums have gone to great lengths to undo their colonial past - both by returning looted items and by promoting and funding local archaeologists in former colonies.

4) As in other professions where people routinely deal with death, yes, gallows humour is sometimes used on digs to cope with the horrific discoveries being made. You can’t excavate a mass sacrifice of children day in, day out, for an entire summer without detaching yourself from the situation. But: gallows humour doesn’t mean you’re not sympathetic, or empathetic, with what those people went through. You need a lot of heart for this line of work.

5) The problem of what we should do with human remains is a delicate one, and something archaeologists have been trying to solve for a while. Many archaeological digs have priests or other religious figures on site to conduct ceremonies for the deceased. 

6) That said, excavating graves is absolutely necessary to further our knowledge of the past - on the one hand, because that’s mostly what civilizations leave behind and on the other because while skeletons were once considered useless and literally tossed away, modern science allows us to extract an astounding quantity of information from them (from diet to diseases all the way to how social classes worked).

7) And, again, understanding our past and where we come from is key to try and build a better and more inclusive future for all of us, which, you know, seems like a good goal to me.

8) It was an Egyptian team who found that sarcophagus in Alexandria. If you have any further concerns about the racist and thieving ways of modern archeologists, please address them to Dr Mostafa Waziri or Dr Ayman Ashmawy from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. You can contact them, and learn more about their current projects, on their FB page.  

Data archaeology helps builders avoid buried treasure

“Data archaeology helps builders avoid buried treasure” by Aviva Rutkin via “New Scientist“

IN 2010, when builders were excavating the site of the former World Trade Center in New York, they stumbled across something rather unusual: a large wooden boat, later dated to the 1700s.

Hitting archaeological remains is a familiar problem for builders, because the land they are excavating has often been…