A Discussion...

[TxMailDude34]

So I don't have a point to ask about, but I do have an artifact question.

In several thousand years when all of us are dead and gone and guys and gals go out on the weekends to hunt for artifacts from our civilization....what do you think they will find? If we could choose artifacts to bury, what would we want to leave behind?

Just a couple thoughts I had today. Granted, arrowheads will still be in the ground cuz let's face it, we won't find them all, but we don't handcraft things like that anymore. Stone tools last thousands and thousands of years. Everything we have breaks in 5 mins or just stays in a landfill.

What are your thoughts?

[willjo]

There will be some of my primitive points out there and I know several other archers that have lost modern made flint points, may be interesting trying to date those.

[TxMailDude34]

What about our weaponry? Do you think they will get as excited over the plastic grip of a Glock like we do over finding a Clovis point? Or maybe a glass Pepsi bottle will go in a shadow box and they will post pics on a forum like this LOL

[OnewiththewilD]

Plastic, lots an lots of plastic and junk electronics.

[Kyflintguy]

Well here are a few of my thoughts, you may think me a pessimist after this... Our artifacts will never be as collectible as the ones we seek out today. One reason I think that is because we mass produce everything. The things that last for thousands of years will be inadament pieces and parts of other things like rubber, plastics, aluminum, glass, concrete structures etc. The real collectibles will still be the things that connect us to our deep history on the planet. So assuming that somehow we keep humming along in some form of civillized society and museums are still a thing, i think our display would hit the high spots of us in a nutshell over the last 100 years. Our generations might fetch a nice 8' by 10' foot frame highlighting our overindulgence in massed produced products and technological advancements. This is all assuming that we don't nuke ourselves off the planet, or get wiped out by the perfect storm of natural disasters, viruses, cosmic catastrophes or a combination there of lol. Wich imo is much more likely than the proposed idea of future collectors. When I think of the far future, scenes from Mad Max or wastelands being taken back by the earth void of human life seem far more probable. I'd still want to find arrowheads though if I were there. Lol

[Tam]

Tx, they are preserving parts of Greece the Egyptian past now so I feel..
all of that will always be around . I also have a theory about NA artifacts . I feel many of them are all covered up by most of our cities . When those buildings finally come down then a new generation of collecting will begin .
I agree that weapons and plastics will be on view . They already have the helicopters from the Vietnam war on display here in Hawaii . The guys that fly the black hawks just shake their heads in amazement already .
I already say what were we thinking with that first space capsule coming down to Earth almost burning up . Those are what some of the things like Josh said History will be of interests to me . Our barbaric ways of medical and dental
surgery will be shocking .
Medical history like now will be on display . Boy you got me thinking here .

[Havenhunter]

Treasure & artifact hunters will find glass, stone sculptures, gold jewelry, coins, pottery , old & less old knapped weapons-- all the things we currently find & treasure.
But they will find the worst hubris of mankind as well-- plastic, tons & tons of plastic. Manmade polymers of all kinds. Chunks of rusted articles that were once "swords or plough shares" if you get my drift. Radioactive waste stored in the ground, biological agents still alive & ready to be released, & chemical weapons still potent & deadly.

"And the seas will rise and claim man's follies..."

[JoshinMO]

I think I'd like to just leave a Home behind and whatever get's lost or pushed into The soil is what would be found. I don't really make stuff very often. Great and interesting Topic though!

[Limestoned]

We can get an idea of the sort of stuff future archeologists might find by looking at what's being deposited. Digging a garden in the yard of a house that's about 50 years old, I found a lot of plastic toys and silverware.

They might find a small deposit of crystals they could identify as Ouachita Mountains quartz, but I didn't leave any good ones there.

[Pointhead]

This is very cool! I’d think maybe old beer bottles might become collectable. Maybe fishing lures could become cool relics? Like tin lures that some of the east coast guys use here for bluefish?

[CMD]

If the present were an archaeological site. I always enjoyed this book. Hilarious take on how a future archaeologist could get it all wrong. Very wrong. Excerpt:

http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf

[CMD]

If the present were an archaeological site. I always enjoyed this book. Hilarious take on how a future archaeologist could get it all wrong. Very wrong. Excerpt:

http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-conte...s-Macaulay.pdf

An additional illustration from "Motel of the Mysteries". Here, archaeological assistant Harriet wears the sacred collar and jewelry discovered in the inner burial chamber....

[SDhunter]

We leave so much documentation, in museums and libraries, that I doubt archeologists will even need to try and figure anything out. That doesn’t mean people won’t like finding things. Look how much stuff Bruce finds now. Who can say what the next generation will get excited about finding. Most is junk already!

[CMD]

Of course that presumes there will be any museums or libraries left. But, in truth, Macaulay is an illustrator, not an archaeologist. His book was an excercise in humor, but it was embraced as a lesson by archaeologists, as llustrative of the indisputable fact that archaeologist make erroneous inferences all the time, sometimes throwing caution to the wind. And, in the case of "Motel of the Mysteries", they were exploring ruins destroyed in a catastrophic event. We can assume the reader needs to assume that some 2500 years after that event, there were no surviving writings or solid knowledge of that distant past, our present day.

[TxMailDude34]

This is really interesting. You guys are really getting those wheels turning with these theories. If only we could see the future and what will be considered cool or fascinating.

Keep it up! Think about our vehicles, planes, trains, and etc. Just think if people were digging and found a propeller from an airplane or part of a turbine fan from a jetliner. Lol...food for thought

[Tam]

And they will.