Take THAT Future Archaeologists!

[Jonfliesgoats]

I always thought it would be cool to bury inaccurate time capsules, lead plates and clay tablets of us doing ridiculous things.  I think it would be funny to mess with archaeologists a few thousand years from now.  Then I realize I'd just be giggling to myself stamping dumb things into wet clay, giggling as I deposit my inaccurate clay tablets in desert caves, etc.

Does anyone else think about screwing with archaeologists in future millennia?  At what point does a prank turn into concept art and vice versa?

Edited November 4, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[Bill Phil]

*sudden realization

Oh carp. Maybe that's what our archeology actually is! Pranks!

[WinkAllKerb'']

it's investigation, guess, and amount of  remaining data fragmented per time a way or another about this or that, mostly and sort of

" amount "(?) so and then we can argue about said amount that could give a prank an impact, or if a very localized prank could glitch investigation and guess more or less or more or less, moslty and sort of (bis)

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by WinkAllKerb''

[NSEP]

There is this Youtuber called Primitive Technology were he makes huts and tools from the things in his enviromment. Archeologist will be hella confused lol!

[kerbiloid]

Unlikely this could confuse them greater than numerous mineralized remains of the disappeared unknown civilization of beardy midgets, co-existing with humans.

Spoiler

 

[kerbiloid]

2 minutes ago, WinkAllKerb'' said:

any record of a dwarf president, king/queen, emperor or else  since last 50 000 years ?

The left figure is etruscan. Any record of etruscan ones?

[Jonfliesgoats]

You know, I have fifty plus lawn gnomes.  If I make it so that I am buried with them, people will think I was some kind of lawn gnome cleric in the future.  I have to convince my family to bury me in a swamp, like those bog people of Denmark.

[CelticCossack51]

Actually, that would be fun.

[cubinator]

Like this?

 

[Guest]

You're hired.

[Nuke]

On 11/4/2016 at 1:20 AM, NSEP said:

There is this Youtuber called Primitive Technology were he makes huts and tools from the things in his enviromment. Archeologist will be hella confused lol!

yea i like that channel. i like his primitive blast furnace, probibly good enough to smelt metal if he can find some iron ore. its amazing what you can build with dirt and sticks.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Nuke

[Green Baron]

He, funny. But it's the thinking of a nineteenth century when things where classified depending on style, make and stratification.

Some progress have they made since then. Like physical/chemical dating methods, dating of soil and deposition, flow direction and energy of sediments, the list is looong. It's not that difficult for a professional to date surrounding soil, carved pit, and contents of the pit. You must be very accurate to fool them, like using a material that can't be dated (plastic), spoil and mix the soil with fossil hydrocarbons ... but then your material choice will tell it's own story.

Or, in one word: it won't work :-)

On the other hand, so much stuff is mixed up in a geological horizon called anthropocene that future archaeology will probably focus on a different approach to field research than how we do it today. Like (science fiction !) applying a strong magnetic field to obtain a direct image of all elements in a cube of earth without digging anything out.

Also they'll have their heap of written history, information and disinformation ....

Edited November 6, 2016 by Green Baron

[magnemoe]

11 hours ago, Green Baron said:

He, funny. But it's the thinking of a nineteenth century when things where classified depending on style, make and stratification.

Some progress have they made since then. Like physical/chemical dating methods, dating of soil and deposition, flow direction and energy of sediments, the list is looong. It's not that difficult for a professional to date surrounding soil, carved pit, and contents of the pit. You must be very accurate to fool them, like using a material that can't be dated (plastic), spoil and mix the soil with fossil hydrocarbons ... but then your material choice will tell it's own story.

Or, in one word: it won't work :-)

On the other hand, so much stuff is mixed up in a geological horizon called anthropocene that future archaeology will probably focus on a different approach to field research than how we do it today. Like (science fiction !) applying a strong magnetic field to obtain a direct image of all elements in a cube of earth without digging anything out.

Also they'll have their heap of written history, information and disinformation ....

Yes, back in 19'th century it would be easy to pull pranks like this, many was also done, and others was suspected to be. The rune stone found in america was belived to be fake until they found an viking camp. 

Records is a bit confusing too if fragmented. Remember the fun story about rebuilding after the big catastrophe, first part was easy, lots of information about steam engines and similar and it was easy to build, stuff like microprocessors was much harder as it was more complex and the documentation was more fragmented, stuff like nuclear bombs was much harder as it looks like documentation was suppressed, then it got real hard. 
But we finaly managed to get to the level civilization was before so lets activate the warp drive. 

[pTrevTrevs]

On 11/4/2016 at 8:27 AM, WinkAllKerb'' said:

just wondering and curious, any record of a dwarf president, king/queen, emperor or else  since last 50 000 years ?

Although I don't have an answer for your question, I feel like I need to point out that the common myth of Napoleon being short is basically false. He was 5 feet, 7 inches, in English measurements, but was measured using a French system upon his death, which came out at around 5' 3" instead. 

Also, although he didn't win, Stephen Douglas ran for President in 1860. He was somewhere between  5' 0" and 5' 4" and was often called the "Little Giant", the latter part stemming from his forceful approach to politics.

[kerbiloid]

Another version I heard about Napoleon is that this misunderstanding is caused by his nickname "le petit caporal". Thought "petit" literally means "small", in such constructions it means "our", "fellow". Just a nickname given by his "old guard" companions.

[FleshJeb]

13 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Another version I heard about Napoleon is that this misunderstanding is caused by his nickname "le petit caporal". Thought "petit" literally means "small", in such constructions it means "our", "fellow". Just a nickname given by his "old guard" companions.

Likewise, "petite amie"/"petit ami" ("little friend" feminine/masculine) are the words for girlfriend/boyfriend.

[Green Baron]

You are talking about Nappy Bonaparte (I). There were two others and i always found the III the most interesting of the Napoleons, though Bonaparte 1.0 was the first one to successfully turn Europe in cinder and ashes. At the size of onemeterandsixtyeightcentimeters. We're in Europe, guys ! Continental Europe !

:-)

 

Edited November 9, 2016 by Green Baron

[0111narwhalz]

I think I'll try to get the Principia Mathematica bound as if it's a religious text and included in my burial. That and perhaps a little idol of Lovecraft's Great Old One.

[Darael]

Burial suggestion: Cremated remains in a lead-lined box, along with as many anachronisms as you can manage.  Pump out the air, or fill it with an inert gas, and encase the whole thing in a durable ceramic with carefully-consistent gibberish inlaid in a ceramic of a different colour.  Maybe also some warnings in actual languages.  Drop onto oceanic ridge - I'd suggest a trench but those tend to be subduction zones and the box probably wouldn't survive the mantle even if we add some phenomenal thermal insulating layer under the ceramic - and it'll be extremely unlikely to wash up until you and your civilisation are long-forgotten, which is of course ideal for messing with archaeologists.

[Green Baron]

The trench is not a bad plan if you want the box to survive an indefinite time. Leave the lead, then its light enough to get sheared off and a clast in the accretionary wedge under the continent. Only problem: nobody will find it there ... it is as far under the carpet as it can be ....

:-))

 

Edited November 18, 2016 by Green Baron

[kerbiloid]

Arrow tips made of tungsten and spread around.

[cubinator]

Someone should build a stone temple in a jungle, with booby traps and elaborate carvings and paintings of deities and monsters on the walls, and in the center is a typewriter connected to an Oculus Rift.

[James Kerman]

I'd carve Justin Beiber lyrics into a granite tablet in 3 modern languages.

[ProtoJeb21]

You want to know something that'll REALLY tick of future archaeologists?

In some ancient ruins, put an encrypted document that reveals the location of something historically special. The finders would decrypt the document and get to the location, only to find out it is another clue to another place. These poor suckers archaeologists would be bouncing from site to site, picking up clues and sending the Future Hype Train into maximum overdrive. After a stupidly long time of finding clues, they encounter the last artifact. It would say that the encrypted location is where an amazing treasure lies, one that could shape the entire future. Everyone on this future Earth would be following these archaeologists journey to the Ultimate Location. Finally, they reach it. They open the door, get past the booby-traps, and defeat the guard robot. Everyone is watching live as the archaeologists walk into a chamber, find a mystical looking crate, open it, and find...

...A rotting rubber duck dressed as a clown.

Yep, that would be somewhat amusing for the soul of whoever made that. The ultimate archaeological prank!

[cubinator]

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on a Tokyo skyscraper.