Deception of archeology

August 22nd, 2024

Now I have nothing against archeology. In reality, I love archeology and wish more people and institutions and governments were interested in this subject and the scientific field. It is obvious that for all the treasures already unearthed and painstakingly put together and described from different points of view, the vast majority of artifacts and places and remains of people and culture before us are forever lost. Some are still waiting to be discovered before it is too late. Surprisingly, only a dedicated but very small group of people are involved in the process of discovery and preservation of remains of the past with not much support from academia and governmental institutions. It is almost like a lot of people don't want to be reminded of the ephemerality of time and human endeavor. I guess they are the same people who never read (or if they read, never understood) the “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley…

My problem with archeology is as follows — archeology discovers and puts on display only what was produced by hand, without any possible knowledge of minds involved in the creation of particular artifacts. Of course — we get a lot of different, usually incomparable explanations from archeologists about particular discoveries. All of them are worthless. Or are worth as much as my idea of what I see in a particular piece, and I don't know shit. There is no way to provide a correct interpretation without knowing the minds of creators, which we don't. So every and any interpretation is as good as the other, which means they are all wrong. There is no way to change it, but I think a little humility would be in order — I don't recall ever hearing “We just don't know what this is” coming from archeological academia.