[editor-surveyor]

"If you have research indicating the rate of decomposition in the absence of light, moisture and air, please present your references."

Nuclear irradiation is the only thing that could preserve anything that long, even in a vacuum. The US Army commissioned studies on that subject in the early sixties.

[js1138]

Nuclear irradiation is the only thing that could preserve anything that long, even in a vacuum.

Show me some research backing this up. Are you saying, for example, that a fragment of rope would spontaneously decompose in the absence of air, moisture and light? How long would this take? Show me some research.