26
Had a conversation with a field archaeologist at a bar near Mesa Verde last month that completely flipped my opinion on stone tool analysis.
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
wesley38528d ago
Three different field archaeologists I've talked to all said the opposite.
5
sethhernandez27d agoTop Commenter
Spent a summer digging in New Mexico back in '08. @wesley385 it's like trusting a mechanic who's only worked on Hondas to fix a diesel tractor. Same with this whole ivory tower vs. dirt-under-nails debate. Field guys see the real mess - broken bones, sudden site abandonment, stuff that doesn't fit the textbook. But the academics gotta write neat papers for tenure. Always this gap between what people on the ground swear by and what the official story says.
3
faith_carter17d ago
Did you hear what happened to my buddy Dave? He spent a season on a dig in Arizona where they found a whole toolkit that didn't match the accepted timeline, @wesley385, and the lead archaeologist made them reclassify half the finds to fit the paper they already had written. It's exactly that gap between what you see in the dirt and what gets published.
0