September 8, 2010

Recent traces of occupation


Sometimes it's interesting to look at contemporary thing from an archaeological perspective. Check out this photo that I took while I was down in Baja California this past summer--it's of the imprint left by my tent. I took this photo just after rolling it up in the morning, as I was getting ready to head out. Notice the smoother depression left by the tent, all of my footprints around the edges, and the small lines that the tent poles left as they as they dragged across the sand while I folded them up. Notice also that the sand where my tent was is just a bit drier because it was covered from the salt air. These kinds of short term traces disappear pretty quickly...and it would be interesting to see exactly how quickly. Archaeologists are dealing with similar kinds of material traces, but these kinds of subtle remnants are often long lost. Just interesting to think about.

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