Update: Heard a museum curator on a podcast change my mind about reburial

I always thought keeping ancient artifacts in museums was the only way to preserve history. Then I listened to a curator from the British Museum talk about how reburial actually protects sites from looters and erosion at places like Stonehenge. Has anyone else had their views flipped by listening to actual field archaeologists talk about this stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_palmer2429d ago

Bought into the whole "museums save everything" argument for years until I listened to a couple episodes of some archaeology podcast with a guy who actually works at dig sites. He talked about how reburying stuff after recording it is literally the best way to keep it safe from weather and thieves. Totally flipped my thinking because I always assumed once you put something in a glass case it's preserved forever but that curator explained how even the best museum conditions can't beat the original soil environment for some materials. Makes me feel kinda dumb for not questioning it sooner but at least now I get why field archaeologists push for reburial so hard.

wren_carr28d ago

Yeah I was totally in the same boat. Always thought once something was in a museum it was basically safe forever, but then I read about how some ancient textiles and metals actually degrade faster in the climate controlled cases because the soil was doing a better job of keeping them stable. It's wild how much the original dirt matters. I remember feeling almost annoyed at first because it felt like everything I thought I knew was wrong, but now it just makes way more sense to leave it in the ground if you can.