Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
Isn't it interesting what makes things have historical value. Some of the wrecks that people are fretting about trying to save have sister ships rotting at anchor that nobody gives a hoot about. The historically significant hunk of junk differs from the rotting-at-anchor hunk of junk only in that it is a physical link with the past that we can touch and somehow feel connected with the events that it was part of. In terms of real, scientific archaeology many of these artifacts mean nothing. There are plenty of examples of the same thing available above the water. If I bury an old Chevy pickup truck in my back yard an archaeologist would want to restrict access to the area, grid it off and dig it up very meticulously. He could find out all sorts of things from that, but who cares? Those things could have been easily found out elsewhere. Why excavate it? Because that's what archaeologists do. They are trained to try to find out things from sites. Unfortunately, there aren't many REAL archaeological sites available so some of these guys grasp at straws. Never ask a surgeon if you should have an operation, he will always say yes because that is the way he is trained to solve problems, with surgery. The same goes for archaeologists. I don't mean to slam these people, they are mostly very dedicated. But I contend that what they do is superfluous unless there is no other way to find the information, in those few cases their work is vital. 50 year old shipwrecks don't fall into that category. Or even 100 year old shipwrecks because there is plenty of recorded history to deal with how things were in that era. The details of a particular 50 year old ship are irrelevant from a scientific perspective. This is totally different from historical preservation which is done for emotional reasons rather than scientific ones. It really doesn't matter scientifically that Gettysburg be preserved as a national park, but it is extremely important from an historical perspective because of what happened there and the emotional impact that has on Americans. We need to keep these things in perspective. Rick Fincher rnf@sp*.tb*.co*
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]