Archeology and Imagination: Two views

via Wikimedia Commons

I've often thought that another benefit of humanities study is a richer imaginative life. It turns out this is an essential quality for archeologists. Via rogueclassicism comes this piece that asks us to imagine Athens as it was when its main rivers, the Eridanos, Illissos and Kifissos, flowed freely rather than being paved over or confined to channels:

The riverbanks of ancient Athens were areas where city dwellers could find not only water but also cool, shady retreats in which to socialize, worship, practice military and athletic skills or pursue their studies. To imagine the relative lushness that once characterized these areas, one might extrapolate from the delightful microenvironment still preserved in the Kerameikos, where the Eridanos’ now-tiny channel continues to be lined with tall reeds and seasonally inhabited by croaking frogs. 

The other piece, an American archeologist's journal from his Greek dig, reflects on the wider relevance of his discipline:

Archaeology isn't about you. Archaeology isn't about me. Archaeology is wonderfully impersonal; it is about us (here's when pretension kicks in). For more than 10,000 years mankind has been thinking and moving, changing himself and changing his environment. But what makes us who we are? A lot of individuals ask this question of their heritage and look back a few generations to learn something about their ancestors. [....]It's the same with archaeology. No-one is tracing their family line back to Plato, but as a species, as a society, we look at our ancestors to learn something about ourselves. It's not just true of Greek archaeology, it's true of all archaeology, in every part of the world.    

A richer imaginative life is a wonderful thing, true, but the humility of the last piece might help with this problem also. Pin It