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Archaeology

What a grand thing Archaeology is! Archaeology is great! Let's applaud and support Archaeology! It's a line of business with a long term future, a worthy science, and great fun too, providing an immense amount of intriguing interest to a great many people.

Now you might be wondering if I am saying this because I might happen to be an archaeologist. Well, even though the job is very glamorous and well-paid, and a great amount of fame can be enjoyed by the best of archaeologists, I must admit that I'm not an archaeologist. However, I am a benefactor of archaeology as I bury things. I hide things and I bury loads of stuff, and I urge people to hoard and hide all kinds of stuff, so as to contribute to that noble science in the far-flung future! Future archaeologists will appreciate your help! ¿Where would present day archaeology be if all those well-meaning and benevolent ancient peoples hadn't buried stuff, dropped things down holes and between the floorboards, and hidden great stashes of treasure and intriguing scientific puzzles for archaeologists to find?!

Great historic artefacts are made to last forever, so it's not only about the past, but about an ongoing future.

Without going into too much detail, here's the History of Archaeology:

1. In the early period of the history of archaeology, long before the invention of the modern gramophone and Skype, primitive early tools were used, such as shovels. Diggers excavated huge amounts of dirt, and archaeological artefacts were hunted down as if by big game hunters. Treasure was dug up and carted away, and triumphally displayed in museums. Often, objects had to be sawn up to get them into manageable pieces to be hauled away. Sometimes objects needed to be smashed in order to get at more interesting objects, and whole layers of buried cities dug through to get at the more legendary cities beneath.

2. In the middle period of the history of archaeology, paint brushes were used for stylishly swishing away sand to reveal interesting fascinating stuff. Trowels were also used, and pencils too. Early writings from this period show that the science of note-taking was already well developed. Great hoards of carefully bagged interesting artefacts were stored in museum vaults, often with splendidly inscribed labels, and sometimes in conditions which were carefully controlled so that the items would keep.

3. In the later period of the history of archaeology, with the development of wireless telegraphy, archaeologicographic machines were invented that could be deployed to investigate the hidden archaic past without actually having to dig it up at all. Such tools as the ground penetrating radar and the remote beamed MRI scanner were in use, and vast amounts of data were stored on computers, sometimes in formats which could still be viewed even in later years. In this period, places of historical interest were known as archaeological "sites", like web-sites, places where loads of interesting information could be dug up without it upsetting the content of the site.

4. In the more recent or Infozoic period of the history of archaeology, after the year of [oops, nearly gave it away there], the use of nano cluster bots and a variety of new sophisticated 'Nalysys methodologies allowed a great amount of previously hidden stuff to be found which was of great interest and a considerable surprise! It is sometimes said with hindsight that data loss recovery was a science ahead of its period in history.

5. [Entire paragraph removed for later known reasons]

Anyway, as I was saying about supporting the good cause of future archaeology, it's important to hide/bury/keep things which will later be of intriguing interest, and to avoid and eschew that acurséd floccinaucinihilipilification and the scourge which it has plagued upon later agez and [remainder of prolonged future lingo grumbling later removed]

...it being especially important to give the future archaeologist the benefit of the doubt when deciding whether to pass good things on to the future or to just chuck them away for short-termist reasons (which went out of fashion during the mezo-Infozoic period it later transpired). [image removed]

Today's trash is tomorrow's treasure! So bury something today and support the future of archaeology!

Future Archaeology affiliate program is with the good cause of helping to pay towards affording the money for the resurrection of Zyra in a worthwhile futuristic period.

Interim idea about discovered pottery: Putting Pieces Together

It's grand to be a hoarder and to collect all manner of interesting stuff. Museums, those great temples of Archaeology, should be glad to receive stashes to stuff from the present age, because as the future unfolds, which it will, you know (!), the stuff will become immensely valuable and interesting.

Old Film can be developed and recovered. It's even possible to recover the colour in old Kodachrome, but only if you keep the actual film!

old receipts give an insight into people's lifes, but the idea of collecting receipts has not yet gained much popularity.

Sometimes, when something is too good to put in the basura/garbage/rubbish, but not good enough to keep, a sensible middle-ground can be found, by such things being "thrown to the archaeologists"! In the case of pottery items, a conveniently placed house wall is useful, for lobbing the items at, smashing them in an almost sacrificial style, thus providing a worthwhile debris-field for future archaeologists to investigate and to ponder over. Items can also be scattered into your garden, to be naturally added to the leafmould and natural accretion of compost, and then some day in the future, whe-hey, discovery by archaeologists!

Cautionary note: Some archaeologists take a very funny view of OOPARTS (out of place artifacts). If the stuff at a location is temporally mixed-up, for example at Llygadwy, it can result in some archaeologists getting upset. It's best if good relations are maintained, even when doing experiments into time-travel.