Category: Archaeology


0013729e45180b75a83b29Looks simply like a pornographic depiction of women.But…no…lets call it figurative Art.Lets pretend the boundaries of Art have been pushed back .Art began as early as  sophisticated tool-making.Figurative Art looks like having derived /evolved from the  baser instincts in man , as this find suggests.

Could have been a pimp running a show from his cave in Germany..it had been used as a pendant ..so imagine it swinging from his (or her) neck outside a cave .( OK ..I’m joking…to myself …..nobody reads this blog….)

I just find this  a subtle reflection of the sensibilities of European academia that this find is couched in terms of Art rather than the crudely crafted  and purposefully pornographic item it really is.A sex toy was also fond in the cave in Germany but I’m really not  that interested to find out what it is but the researchers seem to be doing what all archaeologists/historians  seem to end up doing…..contriving a narrative that sits comfortably within  their own sensibilities where ever possible.

The Future of the Past

Now that we a firmly within the digital age, with only the prospect of getting deeper, the future of archaeology seems unsure.
When we look back on this period in time (Winsonian maybe?) there will be nothing left to dig. ‘Digging’ will be a desk job – trawling through video (sorry, DVD) archives. Whereas there are medieval villages that have been abandoned we buy our houses as assets now and we do everything possible to keep them standing. How will the archaeologists of the future find out about everyday life in the 21st century? By watching the news, documentaries, films. There are ratings and statistics to tell them what we watched.
This will also be an archaeology without bias. You will get the whole picture and not an idealised fantasy. More importantly it is free from political interference because the worst and the best of humanity is shown on TV these days.

Thus, archaeology will become a 9-5 desk job with the metaphorical ‘digging’ through archives.

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