Archaeologists in Iran made an apparently paradoxical preservation decision after excavating an Achaemenid palace: they buried it again. Without sufficient funding and infrastructure to protect the exposed remains from weather, vandalism, and other threats, earth became the safest available conservation system. The story offers a useful corrective to the assumption that excavation and public display are always the desired endpoints of archaeology; sometimes responsible stewardship means deliberately returning a discovery underground.
Tag Archives: Archaeology
Posts about archaeological sites, fieldwork, excavation, survey, public archaeology, archaeological interpretation, and stewardship of archaeological resources.
Indian Artifacts Lost to Energy Boom
The history of the Anasazi Indians is thought to lay within Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Less than a fifth of the park has actually been scanned for artifacts due to lack of funds. A new project to drill for Carbon Dioxide is getting…