10 a) Archaeological History

Much More than All We Have Ever Found

No matter how many primitive artefacts from the past we find buried in the earth, there have been billions of others that have not survived whether by deliberate disassembly, chemical breakdown or some other means. There is no way for us to know how many ideas and inventions have been halted through time for one reason or another. Maybe they did not benefit the entire species or were environmentally unsafe and consequently phased out. Or maybe our own science has not advanced enough to recognize archaeological evidence of former technologies.

A society, having come to the conclusion that it must develop harmonious relationships with the Earth and everything indigenous to it, will choose its creations, inventions and avenues of inquiry based on that commitment.

If such a society ever existed, it might well have conducted itself in a way that left behind no trace of its members or its technology.

“Wouldn’t such a society still be around if it was that evolved?” Some might ask.

It would if it didn’t change, but we know change is continuous. Members of a society can develop a very complex infrastructure in only a few generations, but if that infrastructure is not maintained, it will certainly disappear. Picture an abandoned parking lot. In a relatively short time, shrubs and trees begin poking their way through the smallest breaks in the concrete or asphalt. Once that happens, water seeps in and it’s only a matter of time until the surface is broken up and crushed under the living weight of nature. In a single generation, everything can change. If members of a once-healthy society became ill, that society would regress. It’s only natural.

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