On Dec 4, 2006, at 4:19 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
Although, likely as not, when some future arkæologist finds the inscriptions he will look at them without any formal training in any kind of physics or natural science and conclude that "they probably have religious significance" which is the default explanation in that branch of history.
Many inscriptions from the last millennium do have religious significance, of course.
Current archeology involves a goodly amount of both high and low tech natural knowledge, from ground penetrating radar to a deep familiarity with the life cycles of various large and small scavengers and decomposers. Archeologists also benefit from being familiar with the subjects of their investigations. That nothing much is known about the builders of Stonehenge and other neolithic sites isn't the fault of the archeologists – they've done wonders with diverse cultures from Rome to Maya to Colonial America. (The perennial questions of grave robbing and treasure hunting seem peripheral to the current discussion.) Future archeologists, short of a "discontinuity" major enough to recycle a large fraction of the Earth's crust, will have vast and detailed information to work with regarding our civilization. It's also hard to imagine that they won't be motivated to do a good job of interpreting the semiotics of the detritus of our fallen world girdling civilization. More shame on us, but perhaps we'll at least be able to serve as a good object lesson to our gill-breathing, three-eyed, land-flounder descendants.
The existence of archeologists, of course, implies a civilization of a certain level of sophistication. The inscriptions on the WIPP aren't intended for educated readers like archeologists, but rather as a big "Yuck!" sign as used on children's medications. Any group of hunter-gatherers who stumble on WIPP and think to raid it as they will likely have been raiding landfills and other fin de millénaire treasure troves, will first have to pass the threshold of being capable of gaining physical entry. If they are skilled enough to do this, they are skilled enough to make some simple astronomical observations (assuming the stars are still visible through the cesspool we will have made of the atmosphere). One imagines the corpses of previous diggers will serve as an even better warning sign for the successive neolithic survivors of repeated discontinuities. A hundred centuries is a long time.
The PP in WIPP stand for Pilot Project. The point of a pilot project is to teach something to current engineers, archeologists and other scientists, the public, and maybe, just maybe – to a few politicians.
I'd vote, myself, for using a subduction zone for this purpose, although having a goal of launching our waste into the Sun might serve to invigorate the space program for a few decades.
Rob Seaman NOAO
