Faith, Archaeology and the Gods

Recent events in the Middle East, or rather several millennia of tragedy in the area, has highlighted the issues of Gods, and the problems they cause, so should archaeologists have any dealings with the supernatural? 

Meta-parables

Faith changes people’s lives, although it is often other folk’s beliefs, rather than our own that have the most significant impact; my life changed forever at Newcastle University where my work based on mathematics proved no match for a revelatory “Iron Age Building Cosmology”; as we shall see, when creating myth a power-base is more important than an evidence base. While rationality, at least as expressed in science and maths is universal, Gods, despite their claims are usually fairly locally based, archaeology is aware of this because we know where they lived. While Gods clearly can inhabit a variety of elements and dimensions, it probably saves confusion when interacting with human society if they have a principle residence from where they can transact their business.

36. Being on the level about Prehistoric Masons.

I am going to tell you a secret. It is older, deeper, and infinitely more real than anything dreamt up by Dan Brown. Granted, it involves masons, pyramids, and ancient secrets, all the usual suspects. But don’t be alarmed, I am a field archaeologist, and we dig through the brown stuff all the time, and dark forces tend to cross the street to avoid us.


Secrets

The use of the word secret to describe undiscovered archaeology is nothing more than as simple truism, but it serves to heighten the sense of mystery, which I am happy to invoke in a spirit of ironic, but gratuitous, hypocrisy.

13. Dangerous Eaters of Wood

Most environments have dangerous things in them, but humans have proved quite efficient at eliminating the larger and more obvious hazards, such as other humans and larger animals. Until modern times, the persistent little beasties, like insects, have proved harder to stamp out. Some insects, together with some fungi, view the fabric of our material culture as a food source.
Builders in many parts of the world use plant stems, particularly trees, but also grasses and reeds, because they are relatively light and strong, tend to grow long and straight, and are often abundant. These plants have a structure built from a compound called cellulose. In wood this accounts for about 50% of the structure, the rest being hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose are polymers, chemicals formed by long chains of smaller base units. Cellulose is made from chains of glucose in much the same way that the plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is made from chains of vinyl chloride molecules.

Cellulose is tough stuff, which is why we find wood so useful, and luckily it is also tough stuff to eat. For humans it would be pure dietary fibre, but we lack the appropriate bacteria in our gut to break it down. These are found in ruminants, like cows, and in certain insects, and it is the latter that are most likely to try and eat your house.