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Comment by blakesterz | Hacker News Reader

So this is neat, and a really long read. This guy was right at the time between theMycenaeans and the Minoans "to whom we can trace our cultural heritage since 1450 B.C." and so he has a bunch of stuff that shows some blending of the two times. Shows some different ideas about the roots of Western civilization. This one grave apparently has so much stuff someone will work on it for the rest of their career!

"There are more than 1,500 objects in all, and although the most precious items aren’t here (they are under lock-and-key elsewhere), the scale of the task she faces to preserve and publish these objects is nearly overwhelming. She surveys the room: a life’s work mapped out before her."

This is a drawing of what it looks like in the grave:

http://cdn.thinglink.me/api/image/871131223215308800/1024/10...

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That sounds kind of ridiculous. Why dont they just leave it in the ground and take pictures of it?

You need physical access to the items to perform tests on them to understand where they come from and what they're made of. You also fund the further study of these objects by renting/selling pieces of the collection to museums, curators, and collectors.

If we use imaging equipment we can somehow learn more by using more spatial reasoning. Then you can make more.

Part of any modern archeological dig is documenting the original location of every artifact. From the article:

> ... the three-dimensional location of every last bead photographed and recorded.

1. because the site is a 3D accumulation, you need to remove layers to access what's below

2. to apply laboratory tech, you're not going to bring an electron microscope or an NMR spectrometer down a pit

3. to keep the artefacts from spoiling further

4. because spoilage of the artefacts will speed up once they're uncovered and exposed to the elements

5. to avoid thefts and secreting of the artefacts in private collections

6. because the state would have to confiscate all dig sites rather than temporary make them off-limits, which people already react to quite badly (especially when the dig site is a construction site which is rather common, look up "rescue archaeology")

The artifacts left in the ground will be around longer than the one put through your laboratory. The one left in the ground will be around for thousands of years. The one brought into your lab will be around for hundreds of years or less.

What you say is only so certain. You dont seem as quick to innovate as others. Why not put a building on top of it and add to its shelter? Everyone will react poorly to eminent domain. So what? Think about the variables.

We'll also know a lot less about them. What's the point of finding them and leaving them in the ground? You might as well not look for them in the first place.

The one left in the ground will be around for thousands of years.

This is not correct. Looters will take the items long before then, as they have for many thousands of years.

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