[Lurker]

Our goal is to preserve sites as much as possible, not to excavate them.

Then what the hell is the point?

L

[Coyoteman]

Our goal is to preserve sites as much as possible, not to excavate them.

Then what the hell is the point?

Archaeologists, borrowing from the physical and biological sciences, have more and more tools each year with which to analyze sites. Our goal is to save sites, as much as we can, for those more advanced tools.

There are plenty of sites that need to be excavated now, as they may be under a planned building or freeway, to keep the research data flowing. But we need to plan for the future as well.

If we were working in 1950, instead of now, we would not have access to radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, computer analyses of various kinds, or a host of other techniques we routinely use today. Sites that were destroyed in 1950 were lost before those newer techniques could be used. There is no reason to think that there won't be many new techniques in the next 50 years.