9 Aug
2012
9 Aug
'12
2:03 p.m.
On Thu, 9 Aug 2012, William Donzelli wrote:
Backhoes? Tractor beams.
I'm at
university right now, studying classics(ancient rome and
greece), and this reminds me of something my prof told me. He was
participating in one dig where they ended up uncovering a grand total
of about ten *tons* of potsherds. That's about nine thousand kilograms
for the metric inclined.
The problem is that most of them had no real diagnostic value - no
markings, nothing unusual. Not really much to be learned from them. Of
course, you couldn't put them in a museum. All the museums in the world
put together don't have space for ten tons of random, unmarked
potsherds. I had thought they should see about selling them, lots of
people would love to have a piece of ancient greece - but, no, my prof
pointed out that they would then become fodder for forgers. So, what to
do? Fortunately, at the time, Athens Airport was building a new runway
- and needed fill. Those potsherds are buried under the runway.
My cousin was on a dig like that, maybe 15 years ago, I think in
Sicily. I think she said that on that occasion, they just used a
backhoe to move the pile over a bit.
And someday we will be using backhoes to move over piles of PeeCees,
Macs, iPhones and Droids.