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To: SunkenCiv

Maybe it's just me, but I think a certain percentage of these types of finds should be archived, documented as to their location, then left alone.

We don't know what another hundred years of science tech will bring us, and what we might find if we wait.

And I guess it seems sometimes we are a bit timecentric, who says we, in this generation, own all the mummies that can be found in the Valley of the Kings?

Later generations might view us as a little conceited.


4 posted on 12/08/2006 11:32:53 PM PST by djf (They have their place. We have our place. WAKE UP!! They want to turn our place into their place!!!)
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To: djf

A lot of people agree with that, and there has been some movement toward very tiny excavations on some ancient sites. Sometimes that's sort of an accidental result (Mellaart got kicked out of Turkey over something else, and couldn't continue his excavation of Catal Huyuk; although I may have the chronology of events loused up), but work at Pompeii has slowed to nothing, with most of it done in the area of conservation work on already-exposed parts of the site. Also, non-invasive techniques are used to maximize the value of a dig, or to examine mummies and tombs.


5 posted on 12/08/2006 11:56:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on Thursday, November 16, 2006 https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: djf

But people today study fossils that were dug up years ago because they were preserved in museums. If we put them back, who knows what could happen. Some kid could pick one up and it'll be gone forever.


6 posted on 12/09/2006 2:36:26 AM PST by kellynch ("Our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves." -- Bernard Baruch)
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To: djf
We don't know what another hundred years of science tech will bring us, and what we might find if we wait.

On the other hand, how many artifacts and finds can be lost/destroyed in the course of a century? Wouldn't it be better to analyze what we can and do our best to preserve them for later for reanalysis if new methodologies are discovered?

14 posted on 12/09/2006 3:36:06 PM PST by SeƱor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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