Archaeologists need to stop making stuff up; they also need to accept that they may never get into the mindsets of those of whose beliefs they have no knowledge.
Stonehenge's HUMAN ABATTOIR was just a prehistoric Burning Man hippyfest site
Comment of the Week: In which Vulture Central's very own backroom gremlins award you, dear readers, the Golden Vulture Dropping of Hilarity and the Wooden Twig of Fail for your inane witterings scintillating nuggets of wisdom. In reverse order this week, we'll be going through those comments which made both us and you laugh, …
COMMENTS
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Saturday 13th September 2014 16:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Now now...
"Archaeologists need to stop making stuff up;"
Let's not be too harsh with archaeologists. Their job consists of digging mouldy crap out of the ground (if they're lucky) and then analyzing that crap to figure out exactly what people were doing thousands of years ago. This task is almost hopeless and all they can really show is a bunch of crap, so they should be forgiven for becoming a bit fanciful with their theories.
Besides, it's entertaining and not very harmful, and there are plenty of rivals who will gladly jump all over them the minute they get out of line.
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Saturday 13th September 2014 17:00 GMT phil dude
Re: Now now...
Exactly, and they can use all the help from scientific analysis they can. For example, don't know the dates of the artifacts? Typically, you open up a tomb after 2000 years and things are laying where they were left. Except, maybe tomb raiders moved stuff by accident 500 years after it was sealed?
Enter isotope analysis. Turns out that in the case of the Mediterranean there are quite a few active volcanoes, and there is sufficient historical notice when a volcano goes "boom". You can tell which artifact was where, when. At least relatively, and sometimes quite accurately.
Yes, I've been drinking with the odd archaeologist...
P.
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Sunday 14th September 2014 06:06 GMT Trevor_Pott
Re: Not bad enough...
While I probably could get a prescription for amphetamines of one flavour or another as a treatment for my rather intense ADHD, both Ritalin and Dexedrine have disagreed with me in the past. I felt that they had too much of an emotional deadening effect - a common enough complaint, I understand - and so discontinued use of them somewhere around the third grade.
So for the record, my drug of choice is caffeine. This is supplemented by meditation and couple different CBT techniques I've been taught that allow to me to be mostly functional.
I don't mind if you mock me in the comments, sir...but accuracy, please! My diatribes are not fueled by something so gauche as meth! They are the distillation of this world's most magnanimous of deity's gifts to our race: the sacred coffee.
Oh, and before you go suggesting it's something I put in my coffee, I'll have you know that I hold anyone who pollutes their coffee with additives in nothing but the highest of contempt. Coffee, black, strong enough to kill a horse.
There now; accuracy has been served. Please, continue with your regularly scheduled vitriol and character assassination.
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Sunday 14th September 2014 07:13 GMT Corinne
Re: Not bad enough...
While you may be irritated by Trevor Potts in general, at least you could rant about him:
A) in the proper approved Rant of the Week style (vast amounts of capitals, exclamation marks etc). Though you do score points for the triple question mark
B) in the comments section for an article that has anything whatsoever to do with Trevor, e.g. comments for Trevor's own article or for the CoTW you are referring to. NOT in the comments for an article about Stonehenge where Trevor hadn't even commented.
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Sunday 14th September 2014 21:51 GMT John 110
Re: Burning man
...but the wicker man in the (classic - Edward Woodward) film was a makey-up* religious practise invented by some upper-class nutter to ensure a good harvest.
*A bit like the scottish accent affected by Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee (and most of the rest of the cast...)
(NB I have also heard the the Roman writers bigged-up these Human Sacrifce stories to justify their mass subjugation of the barbarians. Although why they felt they had to, I don't know)
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