Friday, March 25, 2011

Archaeology and the Internet

I've been beginning to wonder how the internet and masses of media publications will alter the practice of archaeology in the future. We now have a multitude of newspapers, journal articles and websites dedicated to world events, such as the Genocide in Rwanda. Archaeologists are going to be so privileged to have such information at their fingertips---granted no one kills the internet.
We have put so much in the hands of "the internet". What happens if we are no longer able to access it? Say, some freak magnetic field wipes our computer memory's clean. What will happen to the information? Paper records too are destructible and  many of us have had the tragedy of losing a hard copy of an assignment and scrambled to re-write it. If we lose access to the plethora of information stored in the world wide web, will we scramble to re-write it? If so, how will it be written? What influence will this have on the archaeological record?
If someone encounters the Rwanda Genocide grave sites with no available documentation dictating the horrific events of those 100 days in 1994, how will it be interpreted? 800,000-1 500 000 bodies buried within one small country, all dated to the same year. On top of the large quantity of deceased, they all died of a brutal, violent death. Forensic Archaeologists would see that many skeletons have blunt force, ballistic and sharp trauma. Even if there are is little skeletal evidence of trauma on some remains, the manner and commingling of remains would give rise to the idea that a major event occurred. Perhaps a genocide, perhaps an epic sacrifice, perhaps a war. 
These interpretations will be subjective to the 'hot topics' of research as well as the availability of funds to research the graves.
In sum, the internet can be a really handy tool in applications of archaeology--just as long as it is still functioning hundreds of years from now.

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