What would archaeologists in 10,000 AD think of Lieutenant Ninnis?

reply to post by aboutface


Well imagine the amount of supplies they had with them in a hostile environment.

No one carries around that much stuff on a quick 10 minute commute across the frozen tundra

One thing that would throw the future archeologist for a loop would be his depth within the ice.
The fiftyish meters down would be hard to reconcile, upon cursory examination, without modern dating techniques, which I would doubt they had achieved yet, his age would be overestimated by thousands of years.
The crevasse would have filled in with snow and ice in the intervening years, but upon thawing those layers would be the first to thaw, thus erasing the newest layers , thereby giving an erroneous date, by thousands of years.
Given that founding populations were based on the sentinalese, they would have a long developmental period.
It might be a thousand years before they realized the outsiders were gone and they ventured to mainland se Asia, and likely a couple thousand more before they socialized enough to develop long distance trade and the complex social structures needed for civilization.
I suspect they would be limited to Eurasia for any meaningful civilization and would not have made any meaningful inroads into the western hemisphere.
Also the lack of easily available raw material, iron and copper and helium, we will have used it all up. This situation would severely hamper their development.

Originally posted by punkinworks10
One thing that would throw the future archeologist for a loop would be his depth within the ice.
The fiftyish meters down would be hard to reconcile, upon cursory examination, without modern dating techniques, which I would doubt they had achieved yet, his age would be overestimated by thousands of years.

OP stated they have modern day technology.

reply to post by Hanslune
Wouldn't it make them nuts if circumcision happened to become an issue?

Not being rude...inspired by Clarke's The City and the Stars...and anatomical differences.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
reply to post by Hanslune

 

Wouldn't it make them nuts if circumcision happened to become an issue?

Not being rude...inspired by Clarke's The City and the Stars...and anatomical differences.

Interesting point, circumcision was becoming more common in England during the period of 1880-1910 when the Lieutenant was born.

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

 

Wouldn't it make them nuts if circumcision happened to become an issue?
Not being rude...inspired by Clarke's The City and the Stars...and anatomical differences.

Interesting point, circumcision was becoming more common in England during the period of 1880-1910 when the Lieutenant was born.

Well, technology is not too tough to sass out...though we recall that 'ritual object' is code for "I couldn't freakin' tell ya". But it's the cultural stuff that would present difficulty to our future archaeologists.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

 

Wouldn't it make them nuts if circumcision happened to become an issue?
Not being rude...inspired by Clarke's The City and the Stars...and anatomical differences.

Interesting point, circumcision was becoming more common in England during the period of 1880-1910 when the Lieutenant was born.

Well, technology is not too tough to sass out...though we recall that 'ritual object' is code for "I couldn't freakin' tell ya". But it's the cultural stuff that would present difficulty to our future archaeologists.

Yes you wonder if he was carrying a vial of Daffy's Elixir, a book of Psalms and had a locket with a sprig of hair in it.

Great thread idea! Cheers Hanslune.

Would we still have access to info like Otzi the Iceman? If so, then i honestly think i would be leaning to a similar conclusion (but more exploration than trade, etc).

However, i am also honest enough to admit that it would possibly lead to speculation of settlements somewhere on the continent that have yet to be discovered (and those modern accommodation quarters for Antarctic exploration would probably blow my mind!).

The dating would also be crucial though. If finds with similar dates were being dug up all over the world, then it would give an indication as to the spread of humanity during this period, as well as levels of technology (to a point, assuming it hadn't all degraded to mush). All of the data could then be examined more in context and extrapolations based on that - which may end up correct or could end up way off the mark, depending upon future discoveries.

Or, in other words, pretty much the same techniques as today!

Originally posted by Hanslune
This thread that makes you an archaeologist from the year 10,000 AD.

So as a well informed archaeologist in the future, and not able to read what might have been written about this (if the records even survived), how do you explain Ninnis presence in a place 'known' to have no human or plant life in times past?

Transporter malfunction.

Harte

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by Hanslune
This thread that makes you an archaeologist from the year 10,000 AD.

So as a well informed archaeologist in the future, and not able to read what might have been written about this (if the records even survived), how do you explain Ninnis presence in a place 'known' to have no human or plant life in times past?

Transporter malfunction.

Harte

Hey, shouldn't you be grading finals?

Now come on you know they never use to transport dog sleds in ST

reply to post by Flavian


Howdy Flavian

We are taking the position that the languages were all lost so no info on Otzi unless his body somehow (unlikely) survived in the museum.

I think they would find his being there rather odd and unexplainable.

reply to post by Hanslune


Hiya Hanslune,

Boo and hiss to the no surviving sources! That does completely change my perception then. However, with the ability to travel to the Southern Atlantic would surely come some degree of technological competence. In which case, it could be argued (as some have) that there would be at least some degree of forensic ability (something even the Romans practiced, to an extent).

This would then imply at least some ability to determine a possible cause of death, even if wildly inaccurate! If they could then extrapolate frostbite, etc, in a completely ice free environment..........i am guessing they would be an awful lot of head scratching.

And then wild theories of ice Earths, mass climate change, alien visitation (could be a lot of evolution in 10'000 years), etc.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by Hanslune

 

Hiya Hanslune,

Boo and hiss to the no surviving sources!

Did you ever read the Boo and Hiss of Hans Garibaldi?


That does completely change my perception then. However, with the ability to travel to the Southern Atlantic would surely come some degree of technological competence.

in this year you have the technology of our present day

Our finders in this case have the archaeological technology of the our present day

In which case, it could be argued (as some have) that there would be at least some degree of forensic ability (something even the Romans practiced, to an extent).

This would then imply at least some ability to determine a possible cause of death, even if wildly inaccurate! If they could then extrapolate frostbite, etc, in a completely ice free environment..........i am guessing they would be an awful lot of head scratching.

And then wild theories of ice Earths, mass climate change, alien visitation (could be a lot of evolution in 10'000 years), etc.

I would suspect that they would be able to determine that he had died from a fall, as would be evidenced by the damage to the dogs and sled too