On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:49 AM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Old stuff being preserved is often a matter of chance
or luck rather than
planning. Consider the Linear B clay tablets; those were preserved because
they were accidentally baked, in the fires that were set when the city was
sacked. Papyrus documents were preserved in Egypt because it's desert, but
not in other places that aren't quite so dry.
As some civil engineer put it, it's not that the old timers built so much
better allowing us to see the buildings they put up centuries ago --
rather, the buildings that are still there for us to see are the ones that
happened to be strong enough. Sometimes just barely so, like the cathedral
in Utrecht (the Netherlands) -- part of it blew down in a storm centures
ago, but about 3/4 of it didn't and is still good today.
Hi Paul.
I'm aware of all this, which is why I suggested a rock wall in a cavern,
recordings etched into which generally are preserved through time unless
there's extreme tectonic activity in the vicinity that destroys the cave or
the rock wall.
Besides the various paper and clay documents we have today that are with us
through sheer fortune, data carved into rock (and cave paintings) seem to
have universally withstood the test of time.
Sellam