Hi how r u
Archaeologist here, ASK ME ANYTHING
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I'm an archaeologist, who's been working in excavations in Italy, Greece and Turkey - my work area is on architecture but any question is welcome also I work on Classic Greece, Hellenistic and Roman ages :)
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Hi, oh my gosh! So, I've only little knowledge about the concept of archeology, but working on grasping the entirety of it with research. Though with how it felt off with me to begin through wikipedia articles, I ended up reading a personal-type of book to fully understand it from the perspective of the person going through with that type of job to have and found this gem of a book called, "Diary of an Archeologist" by this wonderful author named Alatary and it popped into my mind this question, based on how her mentor and her dealt with taking care of a mummified corpse of a child during her internship year, and it's, "Have you dealt with tending a mummified corpse, and did you experience an emotional attachment towards said-corpse?"
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@Get-off-my-hotspot-richard Well, for a real archaeologist who of course loves his/her job, even finding a fragment of ceramic might have same effects. If you ask me no I've never encountered a mummy or never worked in Egypt but once when I was doing my internship we found a 2.2 meter sculpture which is dated to early Roman Empire era. If we compare that was our mummified child. We took care of it, cleaned, studied even guarded at nights for at least a month before moving it to the near museum. Believe me some even cried when we got seperated. I didn't cry but it was a very emotional moment.
If you're interested I'd recommend books written by arcaheologists. Not historians and not art historians. Most of them are not objective and full of false data just like the internet.
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@Heyyy21 Thank you so, so much for sharing a personal experience you've went through yourself with tending something you held most valuable for a sufficient span of time. Your resiliency is truly something.
And oh my gosh, please, please do! I'd read all of them the moment I download or get them! I can't thank you enough for this! It'd make my entire week!
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How many coins have you found on a rock? 🤔
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@Gennyyy it's really hard to find coins on excavations especially if the site is excavated for years, main reason is they're metals and throughout time nations melt them and re-issue them, for me found only one in 10 years - if that was a pun i didn't understand sorry :D
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@Heyyy21 how sweet innit ?? Lovley to hear it .. so why you all come up with your assumption and make it as fact , later on times passes , one more fellow with same madness but also with latest updraded gadgets prove that I am less mad than previous fellow because I have new toy .. so what to Belive .. Okie what do you know about Indus valley civilization and Dravidian civilization ??
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@knownsense well archaeology is and must be based on facts and evidence. Of course as you mentioned with new technology and new findings maybe what we all know is not even close to the truth but with the data we have we can asume and comment on the subject. For your question as I mentioned my area of expertise is Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Roman ages. But of course I've read and studied on other cultures. Such as Viking, Celt, Egpytian, Indus etc.
What I know about those 2 civilizations are limited but I'll answer and hope you like it. Indus civilziation lived in Indus Valley which is nowadays in the territory of Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to findings it's believed they established cities between 3300 B.C. - 2000 B.C. If I remember correctly they got a 500 character writing style which is not solved yet. They were farmers and had great trading relations with Mesopotamia and Egpyt.
For Dravidians, dravid means southern in Sanskrit and they mainly lived in the southern India. Last time I read about them researchers were still debating. It's obvious their culture has huge influence on Indian language, culture and religion. Lastly earliest findings about them are reaching 2200 B.C.
That's all I remember :) hope it's ok for you. It's been so long I've read about them. I'm gonna research as soon as possible. Thanks to your question I'm now curious :)
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@Heyyy21 impressive and glad to know that you are aware of it !!I am not any researcher.. I was fascinated about language and script and got hooked up spent hours of time switching library's and books came across all ancient sects group, relegion, civilization , kingdom.. and curiosity made me more to know, also I am aware of it that it's based on a perspective of past resewrchers, experience, research borrowed, self known..
There is two old language still spoken in India one is sankrit is consider as a Aryan language, not so much used as Tamil Dravidian language.. it's starts form south of India till Sri Lanka !!
And I am not sure few groups of people claims that Dravidian language Tamil is more older than Aryan sankrit !!I am not sure but scholars claim now,
There is a one more language called thulu small civilization, existed before Dravidian civilization, lived in costal belt of Karnataka Mangalore.. language still exist, maliyalam was script of thulu .. now it's state script of Kerala
So it's gives a new angel that thulu is more older than Tamil and sankrit some sense I guess ?? -
What's the best time of year to visit Greece and what parts should u miss?
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@marzipan in my opinion summer and autumn is the best time to visit especially September because of the natural beauty of the country and the weather, especially for the islands. Mainstream places for visit are Athens, Crete, Rhodes, Santorini etc. But for me I'd recommend Samos, Mykonos, Thessaloniki, Kalambaka which has site Meteora which is one of my favorite places to visit, Patras, Paros and Naxos.
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@Heyyy21 is it boring and hard ,being an archeologist?
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@Heyyy21 It's a dirty job. Digging around, muddy, dusty, filthy 😂jk
I respect your profession, without you the history feels more like speculative fiction.
As you mentioned Greece and Turkey, I want you to tell me about Hagia Sophia from archaeological perspective. I admire this ancient building.. Let's take it as a building, not a church or mosque or museum...you know what I mean ✌ -
@kaia_ I was shocked when Turkish government decided to use it as a mosque again. I know Turkish people, most of them don't respect history and historical sites, building etc. must be protected 24/7 or someone will vandalize it for sure. And it already started I saw pictures of people putting their shoes on 500 years old marbles or praying on 400 years of wooden platforms. I hope they don't ruin those frescos. In my opinion even visitation must be limited because whenever I saw it has restoration or reconstruction works going on. So this means building itself or the things inside got problems that can't be solved easily. But now it's filled with people 5 times a day. I respect their religion I hope they respect the history.
If we take it as a building on architecture side. It was the biggest building of it's time. And believed to be a miracle and for a long time no such building constructed. It still has an amazing acoustic. It's definitely a sign of greatness for Roman Empire. (I call Roman Empire because that's what they called themselves, the word Byzantine is actually used later by historians to distinguish them or used Eastern Roman Empire). Eventually marked as center of the world and probably built for that purpose as well and they did bring several monuments to Constantinopolis to show it and they put them next to it inside hippodrome now called Sultan Ahmed Square. 2 of them is still there the Obelisk of Thutmose III from Egypt and Serpent Column from Delphi which is a monument made after the Persian-Greek wars. This serpent column is the important one because religious and prophecy activities in Delphi was already banned but it was the center of the world with this monument they wanted to validate that Constantinopolis is now the center of the world. Column's body is still on the square and it had 3 serpent heads, unfortunately 2 of them are lost and 1 of them is in Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
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@Max256 for me I love archaeology. Field work, digging is amazing to me. Never got bored. For me the boring part is drawing ceramic pieces by hand. God it really sucks. After 4-5 pieces it becomes so boring I just want to leave :) Because we need to draw then as precise as we can even a single 1/10 milimeter mistake could make us draw it again. Also for me because I'm colorblind distinguishing colors of ceramics is impossible and I need help every single time. And because I'm working on architecture and got good drawing skills If I'm available people always want me on ceramic drawing :) and sometimes it's impossible to say no :)
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@Heyyy21 what were your greatest finds 😱😱
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@Heyyy21 Thanks for your clarity of thought and information.
I think that was their political decision, desperate measures… -
@Heyyy21 I didn't understand what you meant by ceramic drawing in archeology,but I guess I can't become one because my drawing is really bad.But digging sounds fun.
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@Heyyy21 thanks so much!!!!
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@kaia_ probably religious government needs religious decisions to stay strong i guess