Systems Engineer and Configuration
Management Analyst.

Postgrad degree is in computer science/cybersecurity, but my undergraduate is in archaeology. Someday, maybe, I’ll merge the two fields professionally!

I love true science fiction, as well as all things aviation, outer space, and NASA-related.

Also, Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip of all time! Check it out ;)

  • 127 Posts
  • 99 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 3rd, 2023

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  • I’m not sure why that’s a conceptual hurdle. Electromagnetic radiation, including the visible light spectrum, is one of the primary methods in which we gather data about and interpret the universe. To say that the matter is “dark” is to say that it’s not detectable on the electromagnetic spectrum to us as we know it.

    It’s not an uncommon turn of phrase, it’s the same reasoning for the colloquial term “going dark” regarding radio communication silence.

    To say that it’s “invisible” or “clear” would imply the existence of some property causing it to be so. This would also imply the presence of interpretable data in order to term it as such, when in truth none exists. You could perhaps say “unknown” but then that’s truly arbitrary, “dark” at least implies the opposite of “light”, i.e. detectable and serves a conjectural purpose in that sense.










  • This is a fair question that is worth discussing. The short answer, is because that generally requires money and resources long-term that are not already available or allocated during the course of the dig.

    Covering exposed features is the only way to “protect” them from the elements, and from the public. Furthermore, it also leaves open the possibility of uncovering them in the future for additional research or examination. This is actually a common practice in archaeology, much more than people realize.

    Which bring us to the fact that the purpose of archaeology as a science, is not to protect every uncovered feature or even every discovered artefact, but to use these materials and their placement in situ to gain knowledge and insight into the human past. As such, the material objects are often of little value unless entirely unique, no museum or archive has endless storage for every object recovered. In fact, artefacts discovered on digs that cannot be added to some collection and are of a known factor, are usually discarded en masse and reburied.

    It’s possible that what you’re suggesting could happen in the future, but that would require planning, funding, and time for it to happen. Without covering up the site now to protect it the way it has been found, there wouldn’t be time for any future planning or funding to even allow that decision.