06-18-2024, 06:01 PM
It would be a better video if Corsetti actually knew more about how archaeology is done and who's in control.
No, it's not the WEF.
Firstus... the site originally was not close to resources (such as places for the dig team to sleep and places where they could cook food, bathe, go to the bathroom, etc.) This presented a logistical problem and also meant there wasn't a constant dig presence.
Secondly, the area is part of Turkey, which is a sovereign country. It's not some free-for-all land in the middle of nowhere. And people own the land next to the site -- and owned the site itself. In fact, it was the land owners who alerted the scientists to the presence of flint artifacts.
One of the issues is that they have to buy the land from the people -- they don't just march in with the army, kick the landowners off and do what they like. That's against the (Turkish) law. You might not like the trees, but I believe that land is held by a local farmer, who uses it for agriculture.
Thirdly, the area is under the control of the Turkish government, who is letting the DAI (German Archaeological Institute https://www.dainst.org/en/departments/istanbul) do the dig.
Dig teams are relatively small and digs go very slowly. So you've got 20-40 people (many of whom are students working under the direction of a senior archaeologist) working on an area. I don't know if you've ever dug at a site, but it takes a lot of careful scraping to clear a 1 meter square section (I worked in Palo Duro canyon with the Texas Archaeological Society, and it took four of us a full day to dig a 1 meter square pit down to a level of 8 inches and sift all the dirt.) The GT digs go down 20-40 feet or more. This isn't just a surface "scratch and be done" operation.
When you find something, you have to stop, call over the site director, and the exact location has to be marked on a grid. Photos will be taken (and not just any old photos. You have to set up a direction marker showing true north and a measuring stick to give the size.) and you'll be told how to proceed. Progress will be stopped occasionally and more photos and measurements taken.
Yes, they even stop the dig for Just Plain Rocks. Those rocks may later indicate something about the fill or may turn out to be pieces of something else.
Everything gets labeled.
If the ground is hard and stony (as it is in that area), it takes longer, and if the site is filled with rocky rubble (as it was), you still have to stop and document Every Single Rock you find.
Every one of them.
And when the tourists started showing up in numbers and damaging or disrupting the site and the dig, they had to do something to both accommodate the tourists (and their valuable tourist dollars) and maintain site security and integrity. So that disrupts the digs.
By the way, the area that had been excavated once fit neatly inside the covering. The progress (that is being complained about) is the part where the dig continues under the walkway and goes through to the other side (as can be seen in several photos.)
Oh... and the site isn't open 365 days per year. Teams aren't assigned the area for their lifetime. In general, many of the workers are there for a semester, so work pauses or slows during the changeover time (and while teaching the new group about procedures and so forth.)
And next, Turkey is and has been involved in conflicts (wars) with Syria and others -- and the site isn't too far from the Syrian border. Archaeology in the time of war has a lot of problems, as you can imagine.
And then there's the climate. You can't dig in the winter (rainy season) and in the summer, temperatures can get over 105 degrees (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/g...-83613665/)
So, yes. They've been digging down to the true basement and not across the site. Yes, they want some areas (with potential problems) left for later generations who will have better tools (improved Ground Penetrating Radar, for example.) This is standard when you run across something that's fragile or embedded in a substrate that's difficult to remove.
And yeah, they're people. Some make really bad decisions.
The WEF clearly doesn't control it, otherwise Klaus' wife would have raised holy heck about it long before this (and so would Klaus. And others.)
No, it's not the WEF.
Firstus... the site originally was not close to resources (such as places for the dig team to sleep and places where they could cook food, bathe, go to the bathroom, etc.) This presented a logistical problem and also meant there wasn't a constant dig presence.
Secondly, the area is part of Turkey, which is a sovereign country. It's not some free-for-all land in the middle of nowhere. And people own the land next to the site -- and owned the site itself. In fact, it was the land owners who alerted the scientists to the presence of flint artifacts.
One of the issues is that they have to buy the land from the people -- they don't just march in with the army, kick the landowners off and do what they like. That's against the (Turkish) law. You might not like the trees, but I believe that land is held by a local farmer, who uses it for agriculture.
Thirdly, the area is under the control of the Turkish government, who is letting the DAI (German Archaeological Institute https://www.dainst.org/en/departments/istanbul) do the dig.
Dig teams are relatively small and digs go very slowly. So you've got 20-40 people (many of whom are students working under the direction of a senior archaeologist) working on an area. I don't know if you've ever dug at a site, but it takes a lot of careful scraping to clear a 1 meter square section (I worked in Palo Duro canyon with the Texas Archaeological Society, and it took four of us a full day to dig a 1 meter square pit down to a level of 8 inches and sift all the dirt.) The GT digs go down 20-40 feet or more. This isn't just a surface "scratch and be done" operation.
When you find something, you have to stop, call over the site director, and the exact location has to be marked on a grid. Photos will be taken (and not just any old photos. You have to set up a direction marker showing true north and a measuring stick to give the size.) and you'll be told how to proceed. Progress will be stopped occasionally and more photos and measurements taken.
Yes, they even stop the dig for Just Plain Rocks. Those rocks may later indicate something about the fill or may turn out to be pieces of something else.
Everything gets labeled.
If the ground is hard and stony (as it is in that area), it takes longer, and if the site is filled with rocky rubble (as it was), you still have to stop and document Every Single Rock you find.
Every one of them.
And when the tourists started showing up in numbers and damaging or disrupting the site and the dig, they had to do something to both accommodate the tourists (and their valuable tourist dollars) and maintain site security and integrity. So that disrupts the digs.
By the way, the area that had been excavated once fit neatly inside the covering. The progress (that is being complained about) is the part where the dig continues under the walkway and goes through to the other side (as can be seen in several photos.)
Oh... and the site isn't open 365 days per year. Teams aren't assigned the area for their lifetime. In general, many of the workers are there for a semester, so work pauses or slows during the changeover time (and while teaching the new group about procedures and so forth.)
And next, Turkey is and has been involved in conflicts (wars) with Syria and others -- and the site isn't too far from the Syrian border. Archaeology in the time of war has a lot of problems, as you can imagine.
And then there's the climate. You can't dig in the winter (rainy season) and in the summer, temperatures can get over 105 degrees (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/g...-83613665/)
So, yes. They've been digging down to the true basement and not across the site. Yes, they want some areas (with potential problems) left for later generations who will have better tools (improved Ground Penetrating Radar, for example.) This is standard when you run across something that's fragile or embedded in a substrate that's difficult to remove.
And yeah, they're people. Some make really bad decisions.
The WEF clearly doesn't control it, otherwise Klaus' wife would have raised holy heck about it long before this (and so would Klaus. And others.)
