Excavation

Recently, archaeologists found a ~1,800-year-old bronze-coated chariot in a Thracian tomb in Bulgaria. The chariot is painted with figures from Thracian mythology, including a jumping panther and an animal that contains a panther's body and a dolphin's tail. Horse remains were located near the chariot. Incidentally, I know nothing about the Thracians, but the article mentions that, "Thracians were an Indo-European nomadic people who settled in the central Balkans around 5,000 years ago." (Toshkov 2008). Wikipedia also provides some information on Thracians and references, for some quick information. Numerous archaeological digs have discovered tombs from these people; however, looters often find the tombs before scientists, and leave little behind.

A few months ago I went to the Maryland Science Center with my daughter and some friends. Their "feature" exhibit is "Dinosaur Mysteries," which is aimed towards children, in which one is allowed to excavate dinosaurs, create your own dinosaur (and email it to someone), pretend to be a baby dinosaur in a nest, put together dinosaur bones in a large 'puzzle', etc. The dinosaur excavation was reminiscent of a child's sandbox, with volunteers covering 'bones' (plastic molded bones in a pre-formed area) with sand, and the children uncovering them with large brushes. You could do it as many times as you wanted, and they would continue to re-cover it with sand as many times as you wanted. I guess there's always the really small children who still don't recognize that a toy still exists if you can't see it under the blanket (and are so happy when it comes out from under that blanket). I forget the scientific name for that though.

I also took a class once on 'Art of the Ancient Americas' during my undergraduate. One of our activities was to conduct a mock archaeological dig. This is tedious work. From what I remember, we had to first find an area of likely 'remains,' mark it off, and then 'dig' very slowly and tediously. Any finds were then excavated at toothbrush speed, with tools that much resembled toothbrushes. It is not surprising that looters often raid areas before scientists, but it is sad. It is surprising that, in this age of high-tech, high-speed, get-back-to-me-on-your-fax-mobile-blackberry-car phone-email we have not found faster means to uncover these relics than slow manual labor. I guess there's just not a market for that? It is unfortunate that mankind may be losing historical artifacts and genealogical data (especially in an age when we have so much scientific analysis available to us) due to simple theft. Maybe one day it will matter more. But then will it be too late?