Why Do Archaeologists Have To Dig?

[Bribie G]

Here's a question for the many well educated and knowledgable people on the forum. I love watching Time Team (on tonight and tomorrow yippee) and also fascinated by ancient history. I often wonder, why is it that archaeologists have to dig trenches to uncover Roman Mosaics, Bronze age tools and even relatively 'modern' stuff from Medieval times. Where does all that dirt come from, is the planet swelling or something?

:unsure:

 

[peas_and_corn]

There's wind and water which moves dirt from one part of the world to another.

 

[yardy]

Here's a question for the many well educated and knowledgable people on the forum. I love watching Time Team (on tonight and tomorrow yippee) and also fascinated by ancient history. I often wonder, why is it that archaeologists have to dig trenches to uncover Roman Mosaics, Bronze age tools and even relatively 'modern' stuff from Medieval times. Where does all that dirt come from, is the planet swelling or something?

:unsure:

:lol:


yeah it's swelling, hopefully my 5 acres will be 200 by the time i'm ready to sub-divide

 

[raven19]

Things lost to time, buildings crumble, fall into disrepair, forgotten, buried. No space left in England so they knock it down and fill it over with fill then build new over it...

 

[tcraig20]

There are lots of reasons why things get buried. Two of the most common are the movement and redeposition of soil by erosion/deposition, and human action, preparing and building new things on top of the old, and the accumulated rubbish of human life.

The middle east is littered with tells, artificial hills caused by thousands of years of humans living in the same place.

 

[Renegade]

Dirt & Dust.

Stands to reason that the more that human population expands, the more dust we'll experience (being that it's made up of mostly dead skin cells). If we keep breeding, Centrepoint Tower will be buried by 2025.

 

[brettprevans]

beleive it or not....space dust aka crap from the sky. we get a lot of shit dropping into earth. oh yeah and moving sands etc etc.

hopefully by 2025 frankston will also be buried! h34r: i kid.

 

[bum]

Meh, I'd better be out of here by then and if not being buried alive will probably seem an attractive proposal.

 

[sinkas]

dandruff

 

[manticle]

Dirt comes from many places. Worm poo is one of them.

As things decay bribie (both organic and inorganic matter) they leave behind residue. All those BIAB brewers in pompeii had to put their spent grain somewhere.

 

[tcraig20]

Time for the truth. Ill give you guys the inside track: archaeologists dont need to dig holes at all. They do it to look busy. If you dont look busy, you dont get the research grants. If you dont get the grants, you dont have a job.

 

[emmatt99]

All of the above.
Space dust contributes in the long run.
From what I've read, the Earth's current accretion rate of dust and particles (average size well below 1mm across) from space is estimated at 40,000 tonnes per year, +/- 20,000 tonnes or so.
release the inner nerd!!!!

 

[Renegade]

Time for the truth. Ill give you guys the inside track: archaeologists dont need to dig holes at all. They do it to look busy. If you dont look busy, you dont get the research grants. If you dont get the grants, you dont have a job.

Little know fact, that they employ dermatitis sufferes by the hundreds to shed flakey skin over potential dig sites, just so the have something to brush away with their little brushes.

Employing these itchy, scaly people is part of the grant money budget.

 

[Kai]

Another reason why archaeologists have to dig is because the old stuff that loses its dirt tends to not last so long.