“Tomb Raider Theme” (‘Tomb Raider I’ soundtrack) by Nathan McCree [1996]
Sky above, sand below, peace within.
– anonymous
It’s incredible how a single event can change the course of your life.
As a young lad I dreamed of becoming an Archaeologist (Ancient History) or Paleontologist (Dinosaurs).
Then one day somebody told me this would mean 8 years of University study.
I believed this meant studying 8 years in a classroom.
Such an idea was intolerable to me.
I didn’t know that much of such study takes place (outside the classroom) in the field.
His single statement crushed my dream.
Yet …
today, when I see Archaeologists or Paleontologists sitting in the dirt
digging around with trowels and brushes,
this doesn’t fit my once glamorous vision of discovery and exploration in exotic places.
So …
Did he do me a favor?
Was I saved from a lifetime of scratching in the dirt?
Or did he destroy my dream?
I really don’t know.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum
Have my high dreams and wonder of ancient things diminished then?
Not a bit.
Without our dreams and wonders we are nothing.
Just mundane muggles.
Don’t let that happen to you.
Share this:
We all wanted to find something amazing. I did once fine something — a Jewish coin from the period of Roman rebellion. It wasn’t worth anything, but it made a nice necklace dangle. There WERE amazing things to find, but mostly they were found accidentally by shepherds wander around near caves.
Some truly amazing things are going on. They have developed this technology called Lidar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar which detects ancient ruins from an airplane. In Central America alone they have discovered thousands of archaeological sites that were completely unknown before. They have enough work for thousands of archaeologists to last them for very long time. Fact is they don’t have enough people or resources to explore them all. I now see they have taken this technology across the sea so there is no telling what they will find in the future. Amazing stuff.
Great post, JC.
Hey Don !! Good to hear from you. Hope you and everyone over there are OK.
My Blog was down for a while. I broke it trying to do some Tech work on things.
Anyway, Thanks for coming around.