2007-02-17 11:56:21 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
It is a good question, if we look around us (in the modern day) it doesn't 'make sense' that where we are standing could one day be buried 10 to 20 feet underground (with people walking around on top digging 'down' to our archeological remains.
The explanation lies (appropriately) in how things were done in the past - rather than the way we do things today. In the past folk didn't have any facility to carry their garbage away. Admittedly there was less garbage in those days, but it tended to build up around settlements. We're talking mostly about organic waste here, not that it would be left lying around on the surface, but it would be dug in or mixed with straw. And remember animals would be contributing as well as humans.
Secondly, when a building was knocked down (or burnt down) folk didn't have bulldozers or trucks to carry the rubble away, they simply smoothed it over and built on top.
So you can see, with our modern obsession with taking garbage somewhere else and dumping it, and no longer living surrounded by so many large animals, we're less likely now, than in the past, to 'sink into the ground over time'.
2007-02-17 17:24:56 · answer #1 · answered by nandadevi9 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your question is brilliant! I'm picturing someone there with a shovel loading the dirt over everything! Do you have a back garden? (Can't do it in the front cos the neighbours would complain). If you do, put some items on the grass, say a garden tool and maybe some kitchen implements. Oh, and a rope thats not rolled up. Now leave them there. Don't cut the grass. Let it grow up around them.
Go back in a year or so and have a look at your stuff. You won't be able to find it unless you have a 'dig'! Nature covers everything up so fast.
2007-02-17 13:56:15 · answer #2 · answered by Rachel Maria 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Blame the wind, weather, erosion and foundations of new settlements built on top of the old, and then even the new settlements eventually fade and erode into dust......
2007-02-17 16:10:53 · answer #3 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Trees and plant life mainly. The odd volcano or nuclear melt down too.
2007-02-17 12:02:32 · answer #4 · answered by John S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Time.
2007-02-17 12:05:17 · answer #5 · answered by tattie_herbert 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Father time
2007-02-17 12:23:55 · answer #6 · answered by llamedos 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Erosion due to : wind, rain,snow, ice ages, flooding rivers & seas, etc.
2007-02-17 12:32:22 · answer #7 · answered by Sam 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We do. We are dust and unto dust we shall return!
2007-02-17 12:00:08 · answer #8 · answered by sarahbean 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋