Re:Göbekli Tepe
by edmundsauto on Friday January 29, 2021 @03:10PM
(#25961764)
This is a good and interesting point. It's not like it's decaying while buried - where is the urgency coming from?
Then why ever dig anywhere?
We know there is a great deal buried that will be surprising. That is what real scientists want unearthed. Archaeologists, less so.
Re:Göbekli Tepe
by edmundsauto on Sunday January 31, 2021 @03:16PM
(#25982149)
The criteria suggested by GP seem like a reasonable starting point.
What do you mean by "real scientists" versus archaeologists?
I have no connection to this, but if I was in charge of a site like Gobekli Tepe I would absolutely shut down all work until I was absolutely sure that the people who were going to work on it were a) funded out of the kazzzoo, b) the best people in the world to do it, c) using methods that would not do damage and stop subsequent generations from squeezing more knoweldge than I could imagine from the site. I would want to know exactly what was being looked for and why before I allowed the smallest trowel to scoop the smallest bit of earth off it.
Why? Because if in three years someone popped up and told me that there were a slew of important questions that were now off the agenda because I permitted a world heritage site to be trashed I'd be quite upset frankly.