Saturday, July 4, 2009

Archaeology in the 35th century

As part of a project I am working on, I recently did some research on a particular archaeological site in Cyprus known as the Saranta Kolones castle. The name, which is obviously Greek, means “40 columns” and it comes from the many granite columns that were found scattered around the ruins of what is believed to have been a 7th century fortress.

Nobody really knows exactly when Saranta Kolones was built or what for, but it became a UNESCO World Heritage site; I guess mainly because it is about 1400 years old.

So, that got me thinking...

How will archaeology reports of our times read in the year 3400? I can only guess it would be something like this:

“The Holecene Epoch complex of “2000 seats” is located in a vast plain and is believed to have been surrounded by a series of trading outlets where people use to exchange printed paper for goods. It takes its name from the many seats that were found on the site and which probably once formed part of this ancient place of worship.

The complex is believed to have been built at the end of the 20th century AD to perform some kind of ancient ritual. The building consists of a large structure divided in eight rooms which could accommodate a total of about 2000 seats. All the seats seem to have been facing towards one of the walls. No traces of images have been found on any of these very large walls that were about 6 meters tall x 15 meters wide; so it is speculated that the attendants used to worship The Wall itself during sessions that lasted about 2 hours each.

It seems that there was some kind of classification as to who could worship in which room and at what time of the day. Children were not allowed in some of the rooms at certain times and in some cases the sessions were attended mainly by males or females.

A reception area, common to all rooms, is believed to have been used to sort out the worshipers.

One privileged single person, probably a priest of some sort, could worship from a private room. This room was located at a very high level, opposite The Wall, and had a rather small hole through which the priest would either conduct the worshiping ritual or attend it in privacy.”

Now, try to imagine the future archaeological description of DisneyWorld!

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