What do you think about archaeology?

[Hero of Lime]

What do I think about archeology?

Does anyone think about anything else when archeology is mentioned?

Those movies almost made me go into archeology. I still understood that isn't what real archeology is about, but I figured having the same profession as Indiana Jones would be cool enough.

 

[Alorxico]

I'm studying the field so I'm obviously biased towards a positive perspective

Hooray! I'm not the only one with a degree in it anymore! Happy Dance Time!

I have only been on one dig, though. Being female really limits your prospects, especially when your field of expertise is currently the hotbed for civil war, political strife and military coupes.

 

[blackrave]

I have no issues with you people, I'll let you live. You're welcome.

Lets not forget that archaeology covers more than just 2000 year old pots and bowls. If you dig up a medieval sword somewhere, that is also archaeology. Basically all visual representations we have of history are a product of archaeology or some form thereof. The way people lived, how they fought, what they ate, etc. All things archaeology helps to solve.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
[Brought to you by Archaeology... oh, also Bethesda Softworks]

Just keep digging, just keep digging! Digging, digging, digging!

Da fuck?
Why would anyone crack a skull?
No really, WHY?

 

[Brutal Peanut]

Just keep digging, just keep digging! Digging, digging, digging!

Da fuck?
Why would anyone crack a skull?
No really, WHY?

Because Buster Bluth is an idiot, but you know,..there will always be money in the banana stand.
[small]It's from Arrested Development.[/small]

 

[Soundwave]

I wish it paid better than it did. I used to be an anthropology major until I found out I'd make less with a bachelor's degree than I would working at a grocery store.

 

[briankoontz]

I'm similar to the previous poster. One can't love history without being fond of archaeology. The more we know about history, the better we know ourselves.

 

[Something Amyss]

Does anyone think about anything else when archeology is mentioned?

Actually, yes.

Seriously, though, my father was quick to inform me what Archaeology really was, so I never really associated either with it.

Also, understanding out past? I can't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Something Amyss]

I view it in a positive light, due to being a history buff. I think there is more chance we'll discover answers when we look at our ancestors then out in space. Brushes and pickaxes are also a lot cheaper than satellites and drones

But nowhere near as fun.

Also, the kind of answers we discover are different, so I'd say apples to oranges.

Unless Daniel Jackson actually was right, there's a lot of scientific answers to be found in space and the pursut of space that cannot be found by any amount of digging.

That doesn't invalidate history or archaeology more specifically, but it's important to not think of things as either/or.

 

[Muspelheim]

It's important, as it is one way to rediscover and record the cultural heritage of our species. If nothing else to inspire our future.

I can imagine that it's a rather slow process on the field, though. And pays rather poorly. I've heard it's better to pursue it as an interest than a full time job.

I'm studying the field so I'm obviously biased towards a positive perspective

Hooray! I'm not the only one with a degree in it anymore! Happy Dance Time!

I have only been on one dig, though. Being female really limits your prospects, especially when your field of expertise is currently the hotbed for civil war, political strife and military coupes.

Old Mesopotamia, by any chance? That must be rather irritating, I can imagine. I've always found it oddly petty when nations and factions won't leave the people armed only with brushes and suncream in peace.

 

[Alssadar]

As one who is fascinated by history, I like archaeology, simply for the sheer amount of learning that's possible, to be able to recover lost knowledge and remnants of forgotten times.
Although I many not be patient enough to do it (I mean, I can put in time, I've just never tried it), I can appreciate what they do, to seek our our past.
After all, millions of people have lived before us, and died namelessly, their stories forgotten and their bodies buried without a stone: is it not our place to find out whom they were, and honor their lives, just as ancestors will do for us? To find out how they lived, and what they did, to better explore the path of how we came to the present? It is a rather strong effect to realize that, for every ancient body we find, we must remember that they were once people like us.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Part of it is good, I love learning about history but I think when it comes to the dead they should be left in peace. Take for example mummies who were taken from their resting places and put in museums, seems highly disrespectful especially given all the people they worked to death to make the pyramids. I would say all of them should be returned to where they were found, we learned what we needed now put them back.

 

[Albino Boo]

Part of it is good, I love learning about history but I think when it comes to the dead they should be left in peace. Take for example mummies who were taken from their resting places and put in museums, seems highly disrespectful especially given all the people they worked to death to make the pyramids. I would say all of them should be returned to where they were found, we learned what we needed now put them back.

The biggest job that museums do is to stop things being stolen. There is a massive black market in antiquities and leaving mummies in their tombs just means they would stolen and never seen again. In the recent turmoil in Egypt, the main museums were plundered and thousands of items were stolen. They was also mass illegal diggings on known sites in search of items for sale.


Its now thought that the Pyramids were not built by slave labour and yes people died in the construction but at no higher rate than the rest of the population. A Mummy never has been found in a pyramid, they were probably stolen in antiquity. Powered mummy was popular ingredient in medicine in Hellenistic and Roman period.

 

[Tono Makt]

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?

Not sure where a moral issue would be regarding archaeology in general - maybe digging up actual graves, which can be part of archaeology, but that's only a part of the field not the entire field. As for how useful it is... I think it's worthwhile, but in the grand scheme of things it's not that useful. I wouldn't discourage anyone from entering the field, nor diminish their accomplishments within the field, I just don't see it as being a useful field of study.

Don't get me wrong - I love watching History channel and National Geographic channel documentaries about ancient civilizations (REAL ones, not Ancient Aliens). I find it fascinating to see how scientists think ancient people lived. I love hearing about the amazing things they were able to do. I just don't see it having an impact on our day to day lives.

 

[Albino Boo]

I view it in a positive light, due to being a history buff. I think there is more chance we'll discover answers when we look at our ancestors then out in space. Brushes and pickaxes are also a lot cheaper than satellites and drones

Actually one of the most recent developments in the field of archaeology is the use of satellites. Basically they are using technology that was developed for looking for soviet bunkers in the 70s to look for buried structures and thus finding new dig sites.

 

[Aesir23]

I'm a bit of a history junkie so I find Archaeology to be a very fascinating field of study. To discover how people lived, especially in civilizations that have no written records, is an exciting little window into the past.

If I had any skill in the more advanced aspects of math I would definitely have chosen Archaeology as a field. Either that or paleontology.

 

[Ieyke]

Of course it's fucking useful. It's one of the most important things humans do.

What is with these idiotic "What do you think about (insert legitimate scientific field here)?" threads that keep popping up????

 

[TWRule]

Maybe since the OP has a 'positive view', he ought to just go ahead and make the case he clearly wants to make?

I'll play devil's advocate. Archaeology is a pointless endeavor. It relies on a the notion that one is somehow acquiring 'knowledge' by digging up artifacts, when in fact it's the case that one had a story/hypothesis they made up in mind ahead of time (usually some variant of a conventional narrative) and ad hoc explain their findings according to that, or at most deviate just enough to be able to tell some coherent story that the artifacts are explainable through, in any case. At all stages, it is the archaeologist's construction that is doing the 'work', not any 'knowledge'. So why not just do "history" without consulting artifacts, if it's going to be arbitrary anyway - besides perhaps that arbitrarily checking our stories against 'artifacts' forces our creativity into (possibly) fruitful bounds?

If there is a "moral" issue, it might be just an issue of how questionable the motivations and projects of someone who wants to go digging, pretending to be discovering truths as they go, so that they might either simply win fame/fortune for themselves, amuse themselves at trivial fetishistic curiosities, or hold their "truth" over the heads of humanity as something that they must accept and regulate their actions by.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Maybe since the OP has a 'positive view', he ought to just go ahead and make the case he clearly wants to make?

I'll play devil's advocate. Archaeology is a pointless endeavor. It relies on a the notion that one is somehow acquiring 'knowledge' by digging up artifacts, when in fact it's the case that one had a story/hypothesis they made up in mind ahead of time (usually some variant of a conventional narrative) and ad hoc explain their findings according to that, or at most deviate just enough to be able to tell some coherent story that the artifacts are explainable through, in any case. At all stages, it is the archaeologist's construction that is doing the 'work', not any 'knowledge'. So why not just do "history" without consulting artifacts, if it's going to be arbitrary anyway - besides perhaps that arbitrarily checking our stories against 'artifacts' forces our creativity into (possibly) fruitful bounds?

Yeah, no, that's really not how archaeology works at all.

 

[eels05]

Its a field that I now wish I'd figured out interests me back when I was 18,so I could have studied harder.
Now I'm a chef and working like a donkey for an average wage.
But whatever,I cant complain. For some reason being loaded with stress and crushing work loads works for me right now.

Take some free advice young people. Do some serious soul searching while your still young to what your interests really are,like NOW,and work from there.Seriously..don't fuck around,your time will come and go before you realise it.

 

[Teoes]

I'm not sure how it can be argued as anything other than a good thing. Learning about our and our planet's history is essentially important. Archaeology is one of the tools we use to do this.

Just keep digging, just keep digging! Digging, digging, digging!

Da fuck?
Why would anyone crack a skull?
No really, WHY?

Because Buster Bluth is an idiot, but you know,..there will always be money in the banana stand.
[small]It's from Arrested Development.[/small]

That was 90% gravity.