May 29, 2014 • 48 mins
If you thought Indiana Jones was the model archaeologist, you're pretty much right. Archaeologists are one part scientist, one part scholar, and one part adventurer. In this episode, learn all you need to know this fascinating field.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast Don't
Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant Old's with us again.
Uh and uh, it's Morning Edition How Stuff Work. It's right.
(00:21):
Are the Indiana Jones chronicles he's in this article. Man,
you can't do archaeology without talking about Indiana Jones because
you can't spell it without Indiana Jones. Uh. And do
you know why? Because, as his article points out, archaeologists
are one part explorer, one part scholar, one part P. T. Barnum,
(00:42):
one part ps, one part scientist, and one part historian,
which is true, and that is exactly who Indiana Jones was.
Oh yeah, Plus he knew his way around a whipping
and gun. Well, you know, if you're gonna get the
ark of the Covenant, you're gonna have to whip a
couple of dudes. That's what Steven Spielberg says. At least
I know he got that across quite plainly. Yeah, the
(01:04):
whipp thing was a good idea. That was neat throwback,
although he never whipped a cigarette out of somebody's mouth,
which I was waiting for. Like the whole movie. Oh
that's a parlor trick. Yeah, well it's pretty cool. That's
very cool. Uh did you have an intro? Did I
spoil it? No? It was as good an intro as
any you know me in archaeology. That was the first
(01:25):
word I could spell. Um, was it? Really? Let me
take that back. That was the first big word I
could spell. I'm sure I had like dog and cat
and all that down first, but I remember being in
second or third grade and spelling it and the teacher
being like wow, And I was like, yeah, I'll bet
you're impressed because I'm young and I can spell archaeology correctly,
(01:45):
and she said, guess it in the corner. The reason
why I could spell it is because I had already
been studying it for years. I've always been fascinated by archaeology. Yeah.
I could have seen you doing this for a living.
My buddy Jerry Um out in Portland's Jerry's both of
our buddy different Um Jerry in Portland mail Jerry is Uh,
(02:07):
Jerry purpose is a here you go. That's why we
had last night. He was a history and I think
anthropology major two and wanted to get into archaeology. So
all those disciplines. Like it's a science that is heavily
uh butted up against the humanities. It's pretty neat well,
it's kind of absorbed them, kind of like some early
bacteria absorbed um mitochondria, you know, and used it for
(02:32):
itself the power. Yeah, but it's it's very much in
that vein. Like archaeology started out as a very straightforward,
simplistic discipline and at one point finally the archaeologists got
bored and they said this, this could be so much
more and they expanded, which we'll talk about when we
get into the history of archaeology, but just the word itself,
(02:55):
it does definitely conjure Indiana Jones um and he was
one part this, one part that, And yes, archaeologists are that.
But the entire pursuit of archaeology is so unwieldy. There's
so much to it, documenting all human industry from the
very recent past to the furthest reaches into human history
(03:16):
that the the field is broken into a lot of
different disciplines, and even those are broken further into subdisciplines,
so much so that like if you take a forensic
archaeologist and put it up against a glacial archaeologists. It'll
be like, are these two really the same in the
same field? Are they? They are? But they definitely you
might not have a lot to talk about, you know,
(03:38):
like how about that ice for success is going to
how about that grave site? Like I have no idea
what you're talking about. They're also broken into geographical areas
sometimes or uh like time periods. Yeah, like you are
a Mesopotamian archaeologists, like that's your specialty, and that makes sense.
There's underwater archaeologists, which I think I I wrote a
(04:00):
few of these articles back then. I think I did
want to underwater archaeology too. It's so interesting that we
didn't touch on. But that's super interesting because the trick
with all archaeology is preservation. You don't just dig in
there with a shovel and like pick up the vase
like in the movie and shake it see what's inside.
It's a lot more technical than that. And with underwater archaeology,
(04:20):
you know that stuff is so fragile. You have to
transport it in the exact state that it was in.
So like if you find a book down there, you
have to put that book in a tank of salt
water at the right temperature a book. Well yeah, sure, okay,
Well you know I'm not saying it's been down there
a thousands years. I have this a stopwatch from the
(04:41):
Titanic pocket watch. You have to transport it in a
tank of saltwater at that temperature with the right amount
of sand to wherever you're going to take it to
your laboratory essentially, and then put on an expensive exhibit. Yes, exactly. Um.
And underwater archaeology isn't necessarily just stuff that that sunk,
although that part is so fascinating, Like things that are
(05:04):
supposed to be above water that are now submerged just
take on a whole different attitude to me. Yeah yeah, um.
But there's other other underwater archaeology too that that goes
beyond shipwrecks, Like they recently found a nine thousand year
old um hunting blind in lake here on what Yeah,
(05:25):
it used to be above water, and then after the
ice Age, the water levels rose and covered it up,
and they recently discovered it under a hundred ft of water.
And it basically consists of some lanes of stone with
a cul de sac yeah um, that they would kind
of use to shoot caribou through, and then at the
(05:47):
end they're like the Cariboers like cul de Sac and
then death. Yeah, but they recognized this and then documented
it under a hundred and twenty ft of water and
Lake Huron. That sounds like it perhaps could have been
an accidental find. Do you know. I don't know how
they're looking for that. I don't I don't know. But
(06:07):
the idea that you could look at some rocks and
be like, oh, well, this is a hunting blind from
nine thousand years ago used to hunt caribou underwater. That
just seems really special to me. That is very cool.
But I mentioned accidental finds because that's one of the
neat things about archaeology. Um. If you're an archaeologist, clearly
(06:28):
you are going to be have be in your bonnet
to go find whatever it is ark of the Covenant.
But there's things found all the time just by people
who stumble upon them, accidental finds. Um. Because there's there's
junk everywhere, like the cave paintings at lasco. Yeah. I
want to say junk. I mean that in the like
(06:48):
stuff way, in the academic sense, not worthless. It's all
great stuff. But the less Go Cave in France was
discovered accidentally by some local teens. Apparently there was a
storm and a tree fell over and it exposed this
cave entrance that had been covered for thousands and thousands
of years at the Dead Sea scrolls. That was an accident.
(07:09):
A nineteen seven a Bedouin shepherd found them and said, hey,
these these are comportant. Yeah, what else for a little
French schoolboys? Let's go? Oh is that? Let's go? Yeah? Okay,
I don't know why she didn't put it in the article. Yeah,
that is weird. She left out that one word. Um.
(07:32):
All right, so let's go back a little bit and
talk about how the stuff all started because in the
you know, fourteen centuries, people really weren't too concerned about
the past. Well that's not true. They weren't looking for
artifacts the necessarily, or if they were looking for artifacts,
they were just looting it and selling it and maybe
melting it down for its gold. Like the the artifact
(07:52):
that self didn't necessarily have any value simply because it
was old. Yeah, that's a good way to say. That
came about as a result of, um, the rise of humanism,
which gave rise to the humanities, which basically prized art
for art's sake, and um gave birth to the concept
that antiquities have value because of their age. Uh. And
(08:13):
then the the Renaissance. Basically it was birth from the Renaissance.
There's a dude named Flavio beyond though that was my
clumsy at times. You want to speak, say it again,
Flavio energy into it and then your Italian. Yeah, I
think that's my problem because I'm fairly low key, you know. Anyway,
(08:37):
Flavio Beyondo was the first person to create a guide
to the ruins of ancient Rome in the early fifteenth century,
and a lot of people say that is the first
person you can point to who gave rise to archaeology
potentially and said basically, these things that we find, uh,
maybe we shouldn't just melt down, maybe we should preserve them.
(09:00):
This is sort of an important thing for the future,
exactly right. Um, So he was one of the first
and then from that point on the idea of um
collecting things kind of took hold and it was a
little nuts so for a while, like people would just
go into it. There was no there was no aim
to preserve the site itself. You just wanted all the
(09:22):
artifacts from the site, so you could fill your palace
with them. Yeah, and I get the sense that there
was definitely a boom in the Renaissance and among royalty
of wanting things from ancient Greece and Rome, and I
know the Queen of Naples wanted, you know, ancient statues
and things to fill her palace and uh, you know,
trying to find out what happened with Pompeii and Herculaneum. Yeah,
(09:46):
that's that's why they were excavated. In was after their stuff.
And Pompeii is really neat, by the way, but all
of the artifacts, it's totally deserted. Everything that's there is
a permanent structure. All the artifacts have been removed and
they're still in Naples where they were taken in seventy. Yeah,
(10:07):
and we'll get a little bit later on into like
who owns this stuff. That's pretty interesting. But Napoleon was
a big proponent of archaeology. And I know we talked
during the King Tut's Tomb episode about Egyptology, and he
formed the Institute of Egypt basically a think tank in
the late seventeen hundreds of a hundred and seventy five scholars,
(10:29):
and it was just that fascination with Egypt and Napoleon
was all over. It formed this think tank and said
go find stuff right and like collected for me. And
they published a book too that really kind of loosed
archaeology and the idea of archaeology um on the world
is called Description of Egypt that they published in eighteen
o nine. Such a bland title it was, but it
(10:52):
like created Egypt fever um and so that came out
in eighteen o nine. In eighteen twelve, a British guy
named Richard Colt or h. O. A. R. E. He
wrote a book called Ancient History of Wiltshire in eighteen
twelve and basically he described methods for excavating methodically. He
(11:14):
also um was the first to identify what are called tells,
which are mounds, ancient mounds of basically a city being
built on a city on the city in the city,
in the city that they've been continuously occupied for thousands
and thousands of years. And then you know who else
was a early archaeologist Harrison Ford earlier than him, uh,
(11:36):
I don't know. Thomas Jefferson in the eighteenth century, late
eighteenth early nineteenth century. He was methodically excavating burial mounds
UM on Monticello, on his land at Monticello, in between
rewriting the Bible. Yeah, he did a lot of stuff, um,
but yeah, he was one of the early ones to
(11:57):
methodically do it. So there's like all of this enthusiasm
as in for antiquities and basically what amounts to looting
and grave robbing. But simultaneously there's these independent gentleman scholars
who are amateurs because there is no academic field yet, um,
who are creating the UM basically the body of experimental archaeology.
(12:20):
How to do it, the methodology, the best practices. Yeah.
In the nineteenth century, a guy named Charles Lyell basically
started um. They called it, you know, uniformitarian stratigraphy, and
which is actually a pretty big hornets test, is it? Well,
I looked in into the uniformitarianism period and the whole
thing is but what does that have to do with dating?
(12:42):
It was a dating system, Yeah, it basically Before then
there is this thing called catastrophism where basically it was
like the Earth is static and it changes only in
the face of major catastrophes like a comet strike or something.
He's the only thing that changes the Earth itself. Uniformitarian
stread geography basically says, no, that's not the case, and
(13:03):
it gave us what we now understand as geological processes
geological time scales. It basically said, the Earth changes constantly,
but our lifespan is so short we can't possibly witness it.
But if you look at this, the processes that take
place now are the processes that the Earth has always
been subjected to. So one of those processes is sediment,
(13:27):
sediment deposits, and you can date things thanks to sediment
deposits because they're actually a predictable thing. So when you're
digging in to sediment, you're digging into the past and
you can date something you find in that sediment. That's
basically what it gave our geology, digging into history. Yeah,
that sounds like the idea that you can date from
layers of ground. Yeah it sounds easy now or not easy,
(13:49):
but it makes sense now, but back then it was
pretty ravel. That's our world view now. But this is
one of the guys who introduced it, Charles Lyle. Yeah,
our hats are all to you, sir, And he didn't
come up with it, but he was a huge proponent
of it who gained a lot of traction with it. Uh,
you're talking about methods in um Flinder Flinders Petrie Boy,
(14:11):
what a great name. In nineto four wrote a book
called Methods and Aims in Archaeology, and that was one
of the first ones to sort of break down how
it responsibly excavate the site yeah um, and not just
to go in there and loot it um. And that
was a big turning point that the twentieth century, the
turn of the century. The find I think it's what
it's called, yeah um. That was a huge turning point
(14:34):
in archaeology. It really represented the when methodology took hold.
Like there was a guy named Heinrich Schliemann who discovered
Troy basically um and he uh just basically went in
and started tearing through the sediment and he identified a
bunch of different layers of occupation, but he didn't really
(14:58):
document him like he should four definitely he had an
assistant named Wilhelm Dorpe felt yeah, and he kind of
took a different approach to it, a much more methodical approach.
And all of this took place at around the same time.
So like even on the site of troy Um. This
change from pillaging to methodology took place. Yeah, they probably
(15:21):
got tired of hearing their uh workers say broke, right,
you know. Yeah, they're like, all right, well maybe we
should slow down and uh it broke be a little
more judicious with the shovel. Uh. Dating Um, old things
is a big part of archaeology. It's no good just
to find something. You want to know exactly where it
(15:42):
came from because well, one reason, because it has more
value if it's older. That was probably what led the
dating charge. But um, there's a bunch of different ways
they can date, and they have dated over the years. Uh.
Something can be self dated. If you find treasurer that's
stamped with a date, then it's done the work for you.
(16:02):
Relative dating. If you find something that's with a bunch
of other stuff that you can date, then you can
probably say, you know, this stuff from King Tut's tomb
is probably all around the same time period. Clay barbs counting,
and that is counting varves, which are little laminated sediments
that accumulate, and that can help you out for about
five thousand years back. No, it can go even further
(16:24):
than really, yeah, how far I mean as far as
you want to go in the sediment. That's part of
the uniformitarian stratiography. Oh, I was misreading and I'm sorry.
Our written chronology only goes back five thousands, right, so
you can yeah. Yeah. And then the idea we didn't
give we didn't pay proper homage to um Darwin because
his we did a whole show on him, right, But
(16:46):
in this one um on the Origin of species um,
the that presented the idea that mankind had a history,
you that went back way further than a few thousand years,
and that kind of inspired archaeology to look around for
it more, you know. Uh. And then some of the
(17:06):
more recent ones, which we could probably do shows on
a couple of these, carbon dating radioactive carbon dating, potassium
argon dating, and thermo luminescence UM that measures light energy
and the intensity of light energy. Amazing, you can calculate
the last time an object was exposed to sunlight through
through thermo luminescence dating, and with potassium argon dating you
(17:28):
can date things back two million years if you believe
the Earth's been around the long so um. But just
a little more about the history of archaeology, if you'll
indulge me please. So methodology took place in the early
twentieth century. It became about that time in academic discipline.
(17:48):
Funny enough, they didn't start applying the scientific method to
archaeology necessarily until like the fifties or sixties. But yeah, um,
but it had its own method, and the method it
among archaeologists was you find an artifact, you date it,
and you catalog it. The archaeologist job was to date
and catalog and ultimately contribute to this growing body of
(18:12):
knowledge that was the timeline of human history and preserve obviously,
but it was like, these tools are older than this tool,
which means that the people who made these tools where
the predecessors of the people who made these tools. That
was it. Archaeologists got bored in the fifties, and they said,
(18:33):
we're explaining how these um these tools have progressed, or
human industry has progressed, but not why. Right when they
decided to start answering why, archaeology became a far more
interesting field. It became a multidisciplinary field, and all of
a sudden, they're bringing in experts in ceramics, experts in metallurgy,
(18:56):
and and grabbing all these people from different fields and
saying how can we answer why this changed? What led
to what change? And archaeology at that point in about
the fifties or sixties became the very far flong, widespread,
all encompassing, uh discipline that it is today. That's awesome. Yeah,
(19:16):
so with help, Yeah, with a little help from their friends,
from their expert friends. All Right, I guess we can
talk right after this message, break a little bit about um,
how things start off. If you want to go to
gick something up. Okay, buddy, we're back. Uh. Field Work
is a word that you're going to hear an archaeology
(19:37):
a lot, and depending on who you talked to, it
might entail the whole process or just out in the field,
like at the actual excavation. But I think most folks
nowadays consider field work the excavation and all the pre work. Uh.
I mean there's a lot of research that goes into
it beforehand, in offices and school rooms and libraries and
(20:00):
what have you. And I think it's either all it's
everything including excavation, or it's all the stuff that leads
up to excavation is considered field work, right, I would
call it predig activity. That's what I would go with
that's where you go with. So excavation and field work
are two different things for you. Sure, Okay, if I
was opening up my own archaeological firm, that would be
(20:22):
my model. Yeah, it seems to be really there's not
a big problem with it either way. UM. So when
you when you do find something, like you said, um,
there's a couple of different ways things can be found.
They can be determinedly, doggedly solid after which can be
part of the field work, going through the stacks in
the library, looking for references in ancient literature, UM, and
(20:46):
just kind of trying to figure out where something might be.
That's what Schlieman did with Troy. UM. He read the
Iliad I Believe, which um describes the Trojan War UM
and said look for clues. Yes, yeah, and and that's
when he was like, I'm pretty sure this is where
Troy is. Yeah, you're like a sort of a history
(21:08):
detective at that point exactly which is Indiana Jones. After that,
you may you have to go get some permits, vocal permits. Uh.
And you're also gonna want to go get a grant
because you're probably not going to fund this out of
your own pocket unless you're somebody like James Cameron or whatever,
you know what I mean. No, but grants can come
from rich people who may want some of the stuff.
(21:30):
Or maybe a museum wants to pony up some money
if they really want a certain exhibit in their museum, right,
or your university that you work for, UM should underwrite
some of it. Yeah, but you get your you get
your funding, you've got your grad student assistants. Maybe if
it's gonna be a really big dig you UM put
a flyer up at the local senior center. See if
(21:54):
anybody wants to come help during the days because of
the elderly would be good diggers, No, they would be
awesome diggers. And here's why it takes a lot of
patients to excavate a site. When you excavate a site,
you're basically coordining it off. UM. And by the way,
we've left at a really important point here. There's something
(22:16):
called geophysical prospecting, which basically uses uh, some pretty incredible
devices that measure differences in electromagnetism or electric connectivity in
the ground and then basically gives you a pretty picture
back saying here's something that's not rock. It's like an
advanced super advanced metal detector basically UM, but it can
(22:38):
also detect other really nuanced stuff like paint. It's in
everything detected. Yeah, it's just good stuff. So you you're
not just you may have read a book that says
I think that this ancient site is here, but then
you don't just start cordining off and digging. You do
a survey of the site to look for stuff and
see if it's likely that it might still be right. Yeah,
(22:58):
that's a huge step that, if you may see, youre
a terrible archaeologist. So I'm sorry we left that part out.
Now that you've got a basically a subterranean map of
the site, UM, you coordinate off and you start digging,
usually by meter, and when you're digging by meter, you
literally remove just one thin layer of that square meter
(23:22):
at a time. Yeah, because we we've said earlier preservation
is key and they were breaking things early on, and uh,
one way to not break things is to go super
super slow, super slow, just a little bit at a time.
And I know everyone has seen the footage of archaeologists
on their hands and knees blowing things with little little brushes,
(23:42):
and it is that UM, meticulous. Yes, might drive some
people crazy. It certainly would. Like construction worker guy probably
doesn't want to be on an archaeological day, no, But
it's funny you bring that up because construction worker guys
often find themselves in the midst of an archaeological dig.
Construction uh yields a lot of archaeological evidence. Like, for instance,
(24:07):
in Miami recently, they came across a two thousand year
old Indian settlement. Yeah, the te Questa Indians Um had
a little spot in the middle of what's going to
be a downtown of Miami's, you know, like their newest development,
and the developers are like, fine, just take some pictures
and let's get on with it. And the locals are like, no,
(24:28):
we need to preserve this better. So they're trying to
figure it out. But it happens a lot. Remember when
we talked about the huge tunnel underwater tunnel they dug
in Turkey. During construction of that, they ran into an
ancient site, so they had to bring in archaeologists. That's
what's called a rescue excavation, where it's going to be
totally destroyed by a group of people who really could
care less one way or another what happens to these artifacts? Um,
(24:53):
in the name of continued industry. So the archaeologist comes
in documents everything, the placement, all that stuff dates it.
And then that what what is documented from the excavation
that becomes the primary source for everybody else to follow.
By excavating, you're destroying inherently. Yes, And each state in
(25:15):
the United States has their own state archaeologists. Um. If
you go to do a construction project in Rome, let's say,
get ready for patients, because when you when you're trying
to build something in Rome, I think they give out
about building permits a year, but they require an archaeological
evaluation of each one. And it's some say it can
(25:39):
cripple uh progress in Rome. Yeah, but if you've ever
been to Room, like, it's easy to appreciate the fact
that they're doing that. Yeah. Sure, I mean it's just
the city built up against ancient, ancient ruins. Yeah, it's
really really wonderful how they preserved everything. Yeah, it's neat.
That's the only place in Italy I've been but un Yeah,
(26:00):
it was awesome. I think, Uh someone else with was
complaining about how dirty it was, and I was like,
it's been here a long time, right, Yeah, you know, no,
it does have the funk of age over like the
whole thing. But yeah, it's still you just kind of
It's not gonna smell like Montreal. Does Montreal smell good?
I think Montreal is noted for being pretty clean for
a city. You can see that. It's a fastidious city.
(26:22):
That's what I've heard. You've never been to Canada, do
you haven't? I grew up near the border, so I've
been plenty of times. Yeah, and hey, early early spoiler.
We may be going out to Canada this fall, to Vancouver. Yeah, Vancouver,
r It's listen up. In the near future, we may
be coming to do some live show there this fall. Man,
(26:43):
they're gonna go nuts if we don't actually go through
with this, that they won't remember we're gonna go though, Okay, alright,
So we talked a little bit about um, the transition
from our from grave robbing to archaeology looting archaeologic sites
and is still a thing. It didn't go away completely.
(27:04):
So each country, in each state in the United States, like,
everyone has their own way to deal with this stuff.
There are a lot of archaeological acts that have been
passed throughout the world to preserve things and to make
sure there's not looting going on. But despite all their
best efforts, it still happens. And uh, trying things like
putting up a big sign this is don't dig here,
(27:26):
do not enter. Sometimes I'm more of a welcome invitation. Yeah,
so sometimes they get tricky in uh, in New York
they do things like environmentally sensitive do not enter, So
they'll try and trick folks into thinking that, you know,
all you who enter will die. Um. But people pay
money for artifacts still, and there is a black market.
People pay money for artifacts, and those people are very
(27:48):
frequently called museums well and private collectors. Yeah a lot
of times apparently, like dinosaur bones are super hot right now,
and Nicholas Cage has one that's contested. Um. It was
it was known to have been removed illegally from a
site that was never officially recognized um by basically some
(28:10):
this couple that goes in and like they're really good
at finding dinosaur bones, and then they sell him on
the black market and apparently he's got a really awesome skull.
Of course he does. Um. He also has a house
in New Orleans that was this like a torture murder
house in the nineteenth century that this really priestess owned
(28:32):
and like that's his house in New Orleans, like the
site of just blood baths. Yeah, he's a weird guy, man.
I know. When he married Patricia Arquette, he did some
crazy list of things, or maybe she came up with
a crazy list of things that he had to do
to marry her, and uh, he did them all and
(28:53):
it was a lot of it was like a big
stupid rich person treasure hunt like that was were creative
than that. Oh I can't remember, like find me a
black rose, um, all these things that are hard to
come by. Then he did it and he married her
and the divorced her. So it's a happy ending. Um.
(29:13):
But the black market, sorry, back to it if you're
in Peru. They estimate they have lost about eighteen million
dollars worth the artifacts and goods on the smugglers market.
And so they their Institute of Culture UM they register
that register their historic sites and they require that all
the collections are registered. UM. They've partnered with the International
(29:35):
Council of Museums and basically all these international museums they're
they're trying to get together to thwart the thriving underground
archaeological goods, market goods, collectible goods. Sure, all right, but
that brings us in. So that brings us to the
interesting point on who owns the stuff. That's a great question.
(29:58):
For a very long time it was museums UM because
they were the ones who sent in professional looters archaeologists
at the time UM to go in and basically rob
a developing country of its antiquities and riches and history
and culture. Basically. Uh. In a lot of cases, the
(30:21):
government in charge of the time was totally complicit, Like
for example, when um Yale sent in Hiram Bingham to
Machu Pichu and he came out with a lot of
artifacts from it. The proving government was totally in on
it at the time. I'm sure that the high officials
were getting tons of kickbacks from Yale for it. But nowadays,
(30:44):
a hundred years later, Yale is giving back it's Manchu
Pichu artifacts. There's been a big move towards trying to
get back things exactly because the proving government has said,
wait a minute, like, we're less corrupt than we were before,
and this is cultural heritage, and that belongs to us, Like, yeah,
you've had it for a hundred years, but like there
(31:06):
was ours for thousands of years, so give it back.
Not necessarily much. You teach you for thousands of years.
But there are plenty of antiquities that museums have had
for a very long time, right, but really belong to
the source country. Yeah, and that's a big sticking point
um every country. Like if if you want to know
(31:26):
who owns an artifact, if you find something, let's say, Uh,
it's gonna depend on where you are. Every municipality, every state,
every country has their own laws as far as finders
keepers laws they call them. Uh, if you're in New Zealand,
a lot of them are dated by time. Like if
it's newer than a certain age, go ahead and keep it.
It's older than a certain age, you've got to talk
(31:47):
to us about it. Uh, found not older? When it
was found? Well, it depends on what country. Some countries
have a date on how old it is, but I
think the date is when it was found. Yes, certain
countries for sure, when it's found, certain it's the age
of the object. Um. It just depends on where you are.
And but in the date of when it was found
(32:08):
is usually the date that that comes after whatever act
was passed. Exactly. So in New Zealand, for example, if
you found something prior to nineteen seventy six, which is
when the Antiquities Act of nineteen seventy five came into effect, UM,
you get to keep whatever you find right right. If
you found it after nineteen seventy six, then you have
(32:30):
to you have to alert the local authorities. If you're
in Sweden, UM, that has some pretty interesting laws. They say,
if if there's more than one object at a site,
then you have to report it to the government. If
it's just one thing that you find, you can keep
it UM. And they have a finder's reward to encourage
(32:50):
people to be honest about it. UM. And if it's
only the single object, you still have to report it.
If it's partially made of a precious metal or copper alloy,
but if it's If you're in Sweden you find an
old wooden bowl, right, I love this example, and that's
the only thing you find, then you get to keep it. Uh.
(33:11):
It's really interesting though. UM. The United States says the
National Historic Preservation Act and the Archaeological Resource Protection Act,
and they claim I think the site must be at
least a hundred years old and remains must be related
to past human life or activity. That means you have
to report it to the government. So it's like really
(33:35):
like granular depending on where you are and what the law.
That's just two countries, Like there's there's something called treasure
trove law, which is basically it's this, but it has
to do with finding a bunch of riches where that
are old enough that the owner is clearly now dead,
(33:55):
no one can lay claim to it, and that they
were placed in a place where, um, they shows intent
for them to be retrieved, like they were buried next
to a tree or something like that, rather than buried
in a grave, because the grave would indicate that they
were meant to stay there with the dead body. So
if you find a treasure trove, all sorts of laws
kick in, like in in uh in the u K.
(34:18):
In in England. You know, the Romans were all over
that place, so people find like hordes of Roman coins,
like when they're killing the ground in their farms, and
it used to be like, well that was yours. That's
not the case any longer. Yeah, sunken treasure, that's a
big controversial area too, because a lot of those are
private companies going after what they think is a lot
(34:42):
of dough. Do you know the gold? That's where the
concept of the camp thing going down with the ship
came from. How's that so? Uh? I was listening about
the fairy disaster and like the whether or not the
captain was supposed to stay on or the Costa concordia.
The tradition of the captain staying with the ship isn't
that The captains just well, the ship's going down, so
(35:02):
I'm supposed to die. The captain is supposed to stay
on until the ship is basically totally underwater, and then
he can get off. It has nothing to do with
him dying. He's supposed to stay on because under maritime law,
as long as the captains on the ship, it's not
up for salvage. But the moment the captain leaves the ship,
(35:23):
it's anybody's anybody who wants to go salvage the thing,
like that boat has been abandoned once the captain is
off the ship. So the captain is supposed to stay
on until it's basically not salvageable anymore. Then he can
he can leave that just so if a if a
ship were just a partially sink, then then it's still
salvageable and there's no captain. Yes, then you can claim it.
(35:46):
Apparently that the captain is still you know, on top
of the front of the boat, if he's anywhere sticking
out of the water. He's like, I'm staying, so you
have to stay too, bartender, that's interesting. Hit me up
with a balini. Uh. UNESCO in nineteen seventy the UNESCO
Convention established tried to establish some international standards for cultural property. Um.
(36:10):
But here's the deal with all those international organizations. They
can't demand that countries join, but they can encourage it,
and more than a country, a hundred countries have ratified
it so far. Yeah. But the thing is is like
even if you join and ratify it, you can still
violate it. International law is so toothless, it's ridiculous. But um,
(36:30):
under that convention though, it's like you said, it's usually uh.
They usually side with the source country of the object
as far as ownership, which is good, and that seems
to be the prevailing wind. Now, like the the if
the source country wants to lay claim to something, you
should give it back. It's part of a cultural heritage
that got scattered to the wind in the nineteenth century
when museums were again employing basically professional grave robbers to
(36:54):
go get them a bunch of stuff for the museum's collections.
And now the tides being reversed in a US. That's
called repatriation. Remember we talked about that in the um
the Shrunken Heads episode, Like those shrunken heads are being
repatriated back to the source. Yeah. Part it is something
that worked for a long time up until the early
twentieth century. And that is basically, when uh, you dig
(37:19):
up you let's say, excavate a site and you find
a bunch of great artifacts. Um, the country itself keeps
most of the stuff, but the digger can keep a
couple of things. And they don't spell out exactly how
many things because it was part. It wasn't like a law.
But for a long time, if you like, you know,
excavate a site, like hey, I want to keep these
(37:39):
three things, you can have the rest in the Country's
like great, that works great. It's like sharing almost, yeah,
and it's not almost, it's exactly sharing. And so we're
talking about the black market being pretty hot for antiquities
and UM artifacts. There's this um group called the International
Council of Museums that basically created a list um it's
(38:01):
called the Red List that they put out I think
on a regular basis, But then they'll put out emergency
ones too when suddenly, like a black market in a
certain area heats up, and it's pictures of specific items
and descriptions saying this item and things like it are
most likely to be smuggled and illegally sold in the
(38:21):
black market because there's a big market for him right now.
It's really interesting to go check out on the like
the most wanted list for artifacts. Yeah, but they'll they're like,
all the different artifacts that they have are really really
cool to just kind of browse through. And they have
a by region and country and stuff like that. What's
it called, uh, the International Council of Museums. You go
(38:42):
to their website and look for the Red lists. Those
guys party too. Have you ever been one of those conventions? Accidentally?
They are wild? Yeah. If you remember an International Council
of Museums convention, you weren't there. You didn't do it right?
All right? I think we should finish up with an
interesting little bit about the Nazi Party because Hitler in
(39:03):
the gang were way into archaeology because they believed if
they could find proof that Germans were the original Aryan
people's along with Thor and odin the Nordic gods, if
they could prove that we were the original people's and
we ran the earth, then that would give them the
(39:26):
right to go in and take your country. Right. So
they weren't just interested in things. They were interested in
trying to prove that they owned the world pretty much. Yeah,
that they were descended from the Aryan race, which was
the proto Indo European group. Yeah, the mythical yeah yeah, yeah,
so and that was I was not clear on that,
(39:47):
like our did the Aryan race definitely exist? Well, I
think the the Nordic gods, yeah, I don't know about that. Well,
they would be mythical, but yeah, there were the people
who worship them. They were the Arian race, right, I
don't know. That's a good question. So I think that
there was an Arian race in which we would call
(40:07):
the Nordic or Germanic people. So I think whether or
not what makes it mythical is the idea of whether
it was some pure white race made it some master
race in the eyes of the Nazis, so then it
may have been a mythical people. We'd love to hear
from you if you're an expert on early proto Indo
(40:28):
European cultures. It was there a group called the Arians
as far as the Nazis were concerned, Yes, there was,
and that the Nazis were the new version of that, right, yeah,
for sure. And UH and this started even pre war
in n Himmler actually founded um, something called the UH.
(40:49):
And this is German, of course, uh anina be that's
what I'm gonna call it. A h N E N
E R b E. Don't you speak German? Yeah, but
that it doesn't look like a German word. It's weird. Yeah,
it does look a little French. UM. And it was well,
it was known as the Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society.
(41:10):
And one of Hitler's bigs big plans was, you know,
when he took control of Germany, he took control of
the education system, everything, and he wanted to flood that
education system with Nazi propaganda. And so they formed this
you know, they call it a think tank, but what
they really did was a lot of archaeological digs all
over the world. Um, like you said, trying to prove
(41:30):
I mean we're talking Croatia, Greece, Russia, Iceland, North Africa.
They were going everywhere trying to find traces of what
they believe were ancient Germans in the original master race,
right and Um. One of the places they went was
Iceland because apparently that's where tool t h u l
E was, which was the seat of the Nordic gods. Right.
(41:52):
And they looked for um something called the Hoff, which
was a place where they were supposedly worshiped by the Arians.
And they said, we found it, we found this cave,
this mystical place of worship. Um. And somebody else came
along and said, no, this cave wasn't inhabited until the
eighteenth century, so not the hof. Nazis and then the
(42:14):
British and the Americans came in occupied Iceland and the
Nazis were not able to come back. That's just one
example of their failed expeditions. Right. Yeah, they had eighteen
archaeological expeditions total, and none of them, uh bore fruit.
They were fruitless. They were fruitless. They didn't provide any
information that the Nazis were the original master race because
(42:37):
they were not. That's right. They were just a bunch
of terrible people, all right. I think you can say
that I'm taking a stand on Nazis. I dare someone
to write in and to defend the Nazis. Yeah, I
dare you anything else. Oh you beat me to the punch. No,
I don't, man um and uh. If you want to
(42:59):
learn more about archaeology, how stuff Works is a veritable
library of articles on archaeology, everything you could possibly need
to know. Basically, you probably would get a degree if
you read everything on archaeology. Not true, you could, okay possibly?
Uh and um, just type archaeology into the search part
(43:23):
how stuff works. Allow me to spell that for you
A R C H A E O, L O G Y.
Is that one of those you have to sound out
in your head? No? Remember that was the first I
was able to spell that word earlier. I remember, but
I just know I see it in my head. Okay,
I see the letters. I think everyone has those words
still though as adults, you sound out that were difficult.
(43:45):
One of mine, for some reason is because I always
in my head at A B C, A U S
C and I still do that in my head. Mine
is uh pretty much anything with the C E I yeah,
spread oh man, are not just words, and it's even
got that accompanying rhyme I before you accept after see.
But any time I see a C and there's eyes
(44:07):
and he's involved, I have to go back and correct myself.
Basically that's called putting learning into practice. That's a dumb
I'm a dummy now okay, Oh speaking of speaking of dumb,
I haven't yet, which means I can still go on forever.
Go ahead. There are new T shirts available for people
who like Don't Be Dumb. Yes, Josh's uh Tony Award
(44:28):
winning web series, Uh would you have me confused? With
Neil Patrick Harris? Again, I think it's great. I think
any time if you're getting feedback where people are saying
this is the best thing I've ever seen and other
people are saying I don't get it at all, or
I hate you for making this, that means you're doing
something genius. Um. So, if you aren't familiar with Don't
Be Dumb, you can check it out on our website
(44:49):
or on our YouTube channel. If you are familiar and
you want a T shirt, you can go to our store. Um,
if you go to stuff you should know dot com
you can get to our store in the top navigation
and there are Josh sent me t shirt. Yeah that's great. Thanks,
that's a good one. But anyway, since I said all that,
I imagine chuck. Finally, it's a time at long last
(45:11):
for listener and mail. I'm gonna call this um thieving mailman.
I think this is sorry thieving garbage man. Um you're like,
oh yeah, hey, guys, listen to how tipping works and
have a funny story. Um. A couple of years ago
at Christmas, my mom wanted to leave our garbage man
(45:32):
a nice tip. She says, garbage man. By the way,
we're not saying that because I know sanitation workers proper term.
These are Emily Crawford's words. I should preface this by
saying that our garbage man isn't like the typical city
pickup guys. He has a small business and he comes
to collect people's trash at their garages with his pickup truck.
They must live in the sticks. My parents have a
(45:54):
long driveway and don't want to drag the trash can
to the end of the driveway, so they hired this guy.
My mom put some money and a card and a
white envelope um as the tip, and she didn't want
to tape the envelope to the trash bags for fear
of it being thrown away by accident. And it was wendy,
so she decided to take it to this iron horsehead
that we have sitting by a planter next to our
(46:14):
garage doors. She attached an image, but I don't have it.
Just imagine, you know, it's a little ring to his nose.
Later that day, when my mom was, no, this horseheads
because they have it like on the side. Yeah, they do.
It's on the side like from their bridle. I'm talking
about this picture I saw, trust me, I had a
ring through its nose. Yeah. It was like a knocker show. Okay,
(46:37):
I see that kind of thing. Uh So, later that day,
when my mom was I love that I looked at
this picture. You're like, no, it didn't look later that
are or you're lying eyes. Later that day, when my
mom was coming back home from running errands, she saw
that the trash had been picked up and the horsehead
was gone. The garbage man must have assumed it was
(46:59):
a gift for him. Well, and he took the envelope
in the horsehead. It wasn't valuable, but we also didn't
want to give it away. We never got it back
and never brought it up to the garbage man. But
I laugh when I think about his reaction was probably
what the heck? They gave me this envelope and a horsehead? Uh.
And I just hope you put it in his house somewhere,
(47:19):
So I hope you get a little laugh out of this.
We did from Emily Crawford. Nice, thanks a lot, Emily Crawford.
That's good stuff. And somewhere there that sanitation worker has
your your family heirloom. Um, that's a good story. You
know what. It reminded me of what the greatest movie
starring Emilia Westeves and Charlie Sheen ever made, Men at Work.
(47:42):
I never saw that. What I did not see it.
That is a good movie. You need to see that.
I know they're sanitation guys and they find something valuable,
probably that someone else wants and so they're in trouble
for it. But you just wrote the script. Yeah, no,
it's but all the hijinks set ensue in the meantime
are hilarious. Great supporting cats too, including Chainsaw from Summer
(48:04):
school Boy. Man. I love your taste of movies. It
runs the gamut, So uh? Is that it? That's it?
If you want to tell us a cute story about
your family, we love to hear those. You can tweet
to us at s y SK podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Discovery dot com and join us at our home on
(48:26):
the web, our place for great t shirts. Stuff you
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast Don't
Josh Clark, Charles W. Chuck Bryant Old's with us again.
Uh and uh, it's Morning Edition How Stuff Work. It's right.
(00:21):
Are the Indiana Jones chronicles he's in this article. Man,
you can't do archaeology without talking about Indiana Jones because
you can't spell it without Indiana Jones. Uh. And do
you know why? Because, as his article points out, archaeologists
are one part explorer, one part scholar, one part P. T. Barnum,
(00:42):
one part ps, one part scientist, and one part historian,
which is true, and that is exactly who Indiana Jones was.
Oh yeah, Plus he knew his way around a whipping
and gun. Well, you know, if you're gonna get the
ark of the Covenant, you're gonna have to whip a
couple of dudes. That's what Steven Spielberg says. At least
I know he got that across quite plainly. Yeah, the
(01:04):
whipp thing was a good idea. That was neat throwback,
although he never whipped a cigarette out of somebody's mouth,
which I was waiting for. Like the whole movie. Oh
that's a parlor trick. Yeah, well it's pretty cool. That's
very cool. Uh did you have an intro? Did I
spoil it? No? It was as good an intro as
any you know me in archaeology. That was the first
(01:25):
word I could spell. Um, was it? Really? Let me
take that back. That was the first big word I
could spell. I'm sure I had like dog and cat
and all that down first, but I remember being in
second or third grade and spelling it and the teacher
being like wow, And I was like, yeah, I'll bet
you're impressed because I'm young and I can spell archaeology correctly,
(01:45):
and she said, guess it in the corner. The reason
why I could spell it is because I had already
been studying it for years. I've always been fascinated by archaeology. Yeah.
I could have seen you doing this for a living.
My buddy Jerry Um out in Portland's Jerry's both of
our buddy different Um Jerry in Portland mail Jerry is Uh,
(02:07):
Jerry purpose is a here you go. That's why we
had last night. He was a history and I think
anthropology major two and wanted to get into archaeology. So
all those disciplines. Like it's a science that is heavily
uh butted up against the humanities. It's pretty neat well,
it's kind of absorbed them, kind of like some early
bacteria absorbed um mitochondria, you know, and used it for
(02:32):
itself the power. Yeah, but it's it's very much in
that vein. Like archaeology started out as a very straightforward,
simplistic discipline and at one point finally the archaeologists got
bored and they said this, this could be so much
more and they expanded, which we'll talk about when we
get into the history of archaeology, but just the word itself,
(02:55):
it does definitely conjure Indiana Jones um and he was
one part this, one part that, And yes, archaeologists are that.
But the entire pursuit of archaeology is so unwieldy. There's
so much to it, documenting all human industry from the
very recent past to the furthest reaches into human history
(03:16):
that the the field is broken into a lot of
different disciplines, and even those are broken further into subdisciplines,
so much so that like if you take a forensic
archaeologist and put it up against a glacial archaeologists. It'll
be like, are these two really the same in the
same field? Are they? They are? But they definitely you
might not have a lot to talk about, you know,
(03:38):
like how about that ice for success is going to
how about that grave site? Like I have no idea
what you're talking about. They're also broken into geographical areas
sometimes or uh like time periods. Yeah, like you are
a Mesopotamian archaeologists, like that's your specialty, and that makes sense.
There's underwater archaeologists, which I think I I wrote a
(04:00):
few of these articles back then. I think I did
want to underwater archaeology too. It's so interesting that we
didn't touch on. But that's super interesting because the trick
with all archaeology is preservation. You don't just dig in
there with a shovel and like pick up the vase
like in the movie and shake it see what's inside.
It's a lot more technical than that. And with underwater archaeology,
(04:20):
you know that stuff is so fragile. You have to
transport it in the exact state that it was in.
So like if you find a book down there, you
have to put that book in a tank of salt
water at the right temperature a book. Well yeah, sure, okay,
Well you know I'm not saying it's been down there
a thousands years. I have this a stopwatch from the
(04:41):
Titanic pocket watch. You have to transport it in a
tank of saltwater at that temperature with the right amount
of sand to wherever you're going to take it to
your laboratory essentially, and then put on an expensive exhibit. Yes, exactly. Um.
And underwater archaeology isn't necessarily just stuff that that sunk,
although that part is so fascinating, Like things that are
(05:04):
supposed to be above water that are now submerged just
take on a whole different attitude to me. Yeah yeah, um.
But there's other other underwater archaeology too that that goes
beyond shipwrecks, Like they recently found a nine thousand year
old um hunting blind in lake here on what Yeah,
(05:25):
it used to be above water, and then after the
ice Age, the water levels rose and covered it up,
and they recently discovered it under a hundred ft of water.
And it basically consists of some lanes of stone with
a cul de sac yeah um, that they would kind
of use to shoot caribou through, and then at the
(05:47):
end they're like the Cariboers like cul de Sac and
then death. Yeah, but they recognized this and then documented
it under a hundred and twenty ft of water and
Lake Huron. That sounds like it perhaps could have been
an accidental find. Do you know. I don't know how
they're looking for that. I don't I don't know. But
(06:07):
the idea that you could look at some rocks and
be like, oh, well, this is a hunting blind from
nine thousand years ago used to hunt caribou underwater. That
just seems really special to me. That is very cool.
But I mentioned accidental finds because that's one of the
neat things about archaeology. Um. If you're an archaeologist, clearly
(06:28):
you are going to be have be in your bonnet
to go find whatever it is ark of the Covenant.
But there's things found all the time just by people
who stumble upon them, accidental finds. Um. Because there's there's
junk everywhere, like the cave paintings at lasco. Yeah. I
want to say junk. I mean that in the like
(06:48):
stuff way, in the academic sense, not worthless. It's all
great stuff. But the less Go Cave in France was
discovered accidentally by some local teens. Apparently there was a
storm and a tree fell over and it exposed this
cave entrance that had been covered for thousands and thousands
of years at the Dead Sea scrolls. That was an accident.
(07:09):
A nineteen seven a Bedouin shepherd found them and said, hey,
these these are comportant. Yeah, what else for a little
French schoolboys? Let's go? Oh is that? Let's go? Yeah? Okay,
I don't know why she didn't put it in the article. Yeah,
that is weird. She left out that one word. Um.
(07:32):
All right, so let's go back a little bit and
talk about how the stuff all started because in the
you know, fourteen centuries, people really weren't too concerned about
the past. Well that's not true. They weren't looking for
artifacts the necessarily, or if they were looking for artifacts,
they were just looting it and selling it and maybe
melting it down for its gold. Like the the artifact
(07:52):
that self didn't necessarily have any value simply because it
was old. Yeah, that's a good way to say. That
came about as a result of, um, the rise of humanism,
which gave rise to the humanities, which basically prized art
for art's sake, and um gave birth to the concept
that antiquities have value because of their age. Uh. And
(08:13):
then the the Renaissance. Basically it was birth from the Renaissance.
There's a dude named Flavio beyond though that was my
clumsy at times. You want to speak, say it again,
Flavio energy into it and then your Italian. Yeah, I
think that's my problem because I'm fairly low key, you know. Anyway,
(08:37):
Flavio Beyondo was the first person to create a guide
to the ruins of ancient Rome in the early fifteenth century,
and a lot of people say that is the first
person you can point to who gave rise to archaeology
potentially and said basically, these things that we find, uh,
maybe we shouldn't just melt down, maybe we should preserve them.
(09:00):
This is sort of an important thing for the future,
exactly right. Um, So he was one of the first
and then from that point on the idea of um
collecting things kind of took hold and it was a
little nuts so for a while, like people would just
go into it. There was no there was no aim
to preserve the site itself. You just wanted all the
(09:22):
artifacts from the site, so you could fill your palace
with them. Yeah, and I get the sense that there
was definitely a boom in the Renaissance and among royalty
of wanting things from ancient Greece and Rome, and I
know the Queen of Naples wanted, you know, ancient statues
and things to fill her palace and uh, you know,
trying to find out what happened with Pompeii and Herculaneum. Yeah,
(09:46):
that's that's why they were excavated. In was after their stuff.
And Pompeii is really neat, by the way, but all
of the artifacts, it's totally deserted. Everything that's there is
a permanent structure. All the artifacts have been removed and
they're still in Naples where they were taken in seventy. Yeah,
(10:07):
and we'll get a little bit later on into like
who owns this stuff. That's pretty interesting. But Napoleon was
a big proponent of archaeology. And I know we talked
during the King Tut's Tomb episode about Egyptology, and he
formed the Institute of Egypt basically a think tank in
the late seventeen hundreds of a hundred and seventy five scholars,
(10:29):
and it was just that fascination with Egypt and Napoleon
was all over. It formed this think tank and said
go find stuff right and like collected for me. And
they published a book too that really kind of loosed
archaeology and the idea of archaeology um on the world
is called Description of Egypt that they published in eighteen
o nine. Such a bland title it was, but it
(10:52):
like created Egypt fever um and so that came out
in eighteen o nine. In eighteen twelve, a British guy
named Richard Colt or h. O. A. R. E. He
wrote a book called Ancient History of Wiltshire in eighteen
twelve and basically he described methods for excavating methodically. He
(11:14):
also um was the first to identify what are called tells,
which are mounds, ancient mounds of basically a city being
built on a city on the city in the city,
in the city that they've been continuously occupied for thousands
and thousands of years. And then you know who else
was a early archaeologist Harrison Ford earlier than him, uh,
(11:36):
I don't know. Thomas Jefferson in the eighteenth century, late
eighteenth early nineteenth century. He was methodically excavating burial mounds
UM on Monticello, on his land at Monticello, in between
rewriting the Bible. Yeah, he did a lot of stuff, um,
but yeah, he was one of the early ones to
(11:57):
methodically do it. So there's like all of this enthusiasm
as in for antiquities and basically what amounts to looting
and grave robbing. But simultaneously there's these independent gentleman scholars
who are amateurs because there is no academic field yet, um,
who are creating the UM basically the body of experimental archaeology.
(12:20):
How to do it, the methodology, the best practices. Yeah.
In the nineteenth century, a guy named Charles Lyell basically
started um. They called it, you know, uniformitarian stratigraphy, and
which is actually a pretty big hornets test, is it? Well,
I looked in into the uniformitarianism period and the whole
thing is but what does that have to do with dating?
(12:42):
It was a dating system, Yeah, it basically Before then
there is this thing called catastrophism where basically it was
like the Earth is static and it changes only in
the face of major catastrophes like a comet strike or something.
He's the only thing that changes the Earth itself. Uniformitarian
stread geography basically says, no, that's not the case, and
(13:03):
it gave us what we now understand as geological processes
geological time scales. It basically said, the Earth changes constantly,
but our lifespan is so short we can't possibly witness it.
But if you look at this, the processes that take
place now are the processes that the Earth has always
been subjected to. So one of those processes is sediment,
(13:27):
sediment deposits, and you can date things thanks to sediment
deposits because they're actually a predictable thing. So when you're
digging in to sediment, you're digging into the past and
you can date something you find in that sediment. That's
basically what it gave our geology, digging into history. Yeah,
that sounds like the idea that you can date from
layers of ground. Yeah it sounds easy now or not easy,
(13:49):
but it makes sense now, but back then it was
pretty ravel. That's our world view now. But this is
one of the guys who introduced it, Charles Lyle. Yeah,
our hats are all to you, sir, And he didn't
come up with it, but he was a huge proponent
of it who gained a lot of traction with it. Uh,
you're talking about methods in um Flinder Flinders Petrie Boy,
(14:11):
what a great name. In nineto four wrote a book
called Methods and Aims in Archaeology, and that was one
of the first ones to sort of break down how
it responsibly excavate the site yeah um, and not just
to go in there and loot it um. And that
was a big turning point that the twentieth century, the
turn of the century. The find I think it's what
it's called, yeah um. That was a huge turning point
(14:34):
in archaeology. It really represented the when methodology took hold.
Like there was a guy named Heinrich Schliemann who discovered
Troy basically um and he uh just basically went in
and started tearing through the sediment and he identified a
bunch of different layers of occupation, but he didn't really
(14:58):
document him like he should four definitely he had an
assistant named Wilhelm Dorpe felt yeah, and he kind of
took a different approach to it, a much more methodical approach.
And all of this took place at around the same time.
So like even on the site of troy Um. This
change from pillaging to methodology took place. Yeah, they probably
(15:21):
got tired of hearing their uh workers say broke, right,
you know. Yeah, they're like, all right, well maybe we
should slow down and uh it broke be a little
more judicious with the shovel. Uh. Dating Um, old things
is a big part of archaeology. It's no good just
to find something. You want to know exactly where it
(15:42):
came from because well, one reason, because it has more
value if it's older. That was probably what led the
dating charge. But um, there's a bunch of different ways
they can date, and they have dated over the years. Uh.
Something can be self dated. If you find treasurer that's
stamped with a date, then it's done the work for you.
(16:02):
Relative dating. If you find something that's with a bunch
of other stuff that you can date, then you can
probably say, you know, this stuff from King Tut's tomb
is probably all around the same time period. Clay barbs counting,
and that is counting varves, which are little laminated sediments
that accumulate, and that can help you out for about
five thousand years back. No, it can go even further
(16:24):
than really, yeah, how far I mean as far as
you want to go in the sediment. That's part of
the uniformitarian stratiography. Oh, I was misreading and I'm sorry.
Our written chronology only goes back five thousands, right, so
you can yeah. Yeah. And then the idea we didn't
give we didn't pay proper homage to um Darwin because
his we did a whole show on him, right, But
(16:46):
in this one um on the Origin of species um,
the that presented the idea that mankind had a history,
you that went back way further than a few thousand years,
and that kind of inspired archaeology to look around for
it more, you know. Uh. And then some of the
(17:06):
more recent ones, which we could probably do shows on
a couple of these, carbon dating radioactive carbon dating, potassium
argon dating, and thermo luminescence UM that measures light energy
and the intensity of light energy. Amazing, you can calculate
the last time an object was exposed to sunlight through
through thermo luminescence dating, and with potassium argon dating you
(17:28):
can date things back two million years if you believe
the Earth's been around the long so um. But just
a little more about the history of archaeology, if you'll
indulge me please. So methodology took place in the early
twentieth century. It became about that time in academic discipline.
(17:48):
Funny enough, they didn't start applying the scientific method to
archaeology necessarily until like the fifties or sixties. But yeah, um,
but it had its own method, and the method it
among archaeologists was you find an artifact, you date it,
and you catalog it. The archaeologist job was to date
and catalog and ultimately contribute to this growing body of
(18:12):
knowledge that was the timeline of human history and preserve obviously,
but it was like, these tools are older than this tool,
which means that the people who made these tools where
the predecessors of the people who made these tools. That
was it. Archaeologists got bored in the fifties, and they said,
(18:33):
we're explaining how these um these tools have progressed, or
human industry has progressed, but not why. Right when they
decided to start answering why, archaeology became a far more
interesting field. It became a multidisciplinary field, and all of
a sudden, they're bringing in experts in ceramics, experts in metallurgy,
(18:56):
and and grabbing all these people from different fields and
saying how can we answer why this changed? What led
to what change? And archaeology at that point in about
the fifties or sixties became the very far flong, widespread,
all encompassing, uh discipline that it is today. That's awesome. Yeah,
(19:16):
so with help, Yeah, with a little help from their friends,
from their expert friends. All Right, I guess we can
talk right after this message, break a little bit about um,
how things start off. If you want to go to
gick something up. Okay, buddy, we're back. Uh. Field Work
is a word that you're going to hear an archaeology
(19:37):
a lot, and depending on who you talked to, it
might entail the whole process or just out in the field,
like at the actual excavation. But I think most folks
nowadays consider field work the excavation and all the pre work. Uh.
I mean there's a lot of research that goes into
it beforehand, in offices and school rooms and libraries and
(20:00):
what have you. And I think it's either all it's
everything including excavation, or it's all the stuff that leads
up to excavation is considered field work, right, I would
call it predig activity. That's what I would go with
that's where you go with. So excavation and field work
are two different things for you. Sure, Okay, if I
was opening up my own archaeological firm, that would be
(20:22):
my model. Yeah, it seems to be really there's not
a big problem with it either way. UM. So when
you when you do find something, like you said, um,
there's a couple of different ways things can be found.
They can be determinedly, doggedly solid after which can be
part of the field work, going through the stacks in
the library, looking for references in ancient literature, UM, and
(20:46):
just kind of trying to figure out where something might be.
That's what Schlieman did with Troy. UM. He read the
Iliad I Believe, which um describes the Trojan War UM
and said look for clues. Yes, yeah, and and that's
when he was like, I'm pretty sure this is where
Troy is. Yeah, you're like a sort of a history
(21:08):
detective at that point exactly which is Indiana Jones. After that,
you may you have to go get some permits, vocal permits. Uh.
And you're also gonna want to go get a grant
because you're probably not going to fund this out of
your own pocket unless you're somebody like James Cameron or whatever,
you know what I mean. No, but grants can come
from rich people who may want some of the stuff.
(21:30):
Or maybe a museum wants to pony up some money
if they really want a certain exhibit in their museum, right,
or your university that you work for, UM should underwrite
some of it. Yeah, but you get your you get
your funding, you've got your grad student assistants. Maybe if
it's gonna be a really big dig you UM put
a flyer up at the local senior center. See if
(21:54):
anybody wants to come help during the days because of
the elderly would be good diggers, No, they would be
awesome diggers. And here's why it takes a lot of
patients to excavate a site. When you excavate a site,
you're basically coordining it off. UM. And by the way,
we've left at a really important point here. There's something
(22:16):
called geophysical prospecting, which basically uses uh, some pretty incredible
devices that measure differences in electromagnetism or electric connectivity in
the ground and then basically gives you a pretty picture
back saying here's something that's not rock. It's like an
advanced super advanced metal detector basically UM, but it can
(22:38):
also detect other really nuanced stuff like paint. It's in
everything detected. Yeah, it's just good stuff. So you you're
not just you may have read a book that says
I think that this ancient site is here, but then
you don't just start cordining off and digging. You do
a survey of the site to look for stuff and
see if it's likely that it might still be right. Yeah,
(22:58):
that's a huge step that, if you may see, youre
a terrible archaeologist. So I'm sorry we left that part out.
Now that you've got a basically a subterranean map of
the site, UM, you coordinate off and you start digging,
usually by meter, and when you're digging by meter, you
literally remove just one thin layer of that square meter
(23:22):
at a time. Yeah, because we we've said earlier preservation
is key and they were breaking things early on, and uh,
one way to not break things is to go super
super slow, super slow, just a little bit at a time.
And I know everyone has seen the footage of archaeologists
on their hands and knees blowing things with little little brushes,
(23:42):
and it is that UM, meticulous. Yes, might drive some
people crazy. It certainly would. Like construction worker guy probably
doesn't want to be on an archaeological day, no, But
it's funny you bring that up because construction worker guys
often find themselves in the midst of an archaeological dig.
Construction uh yields a lot of archaeological evidence. Like, for instance,
(24:07):
in Miami recently, they came across a two thousand year
old Indian settlement. Yeah, the te Questa Indians Um had
a little spot in the middle of what's going to
be a downtown of Miami's, you know, like their newest development,
and the developers are like, fine, just take some pictures
and let's get on with it. And the locals are like, no,
(24:28):
we need to preserve this better. So they're trying to
figure it out. But it happens a lot. Remember when
we talked about the huge tunnel underwater tunnel they dug
in Turkey. During construction of that, they ran into an
ancient site, so they had to bring in archaeologists. That's
what's called a rescue excavation, where it's going to be
totally destroyed by a group of people who really could
care less one way or another what happens to these artifacts? Um,
(24:53):
in the name of continued industry. So the archaeologist comes
in documents everything, the placement, all that stuff dates it.
And then that what what is documented from the excavation
that becomes the primary source for everybody else to follow.
By excavating, you're destroying inherently. Yes, And each state in
(25:15):
the United States has their own state archaeologists. Um. If
you go to do a construction project in Rome, let's say,
get ready for patients, because when you when you're trying
to build something in Rome, I think they give out
about building permits a year, but they require an archaeological
evaluation of each one. And it's some say it can
(25:39):
cripple uh progress in Rome. Yeah, but if you've ever
been to Room, like, it's easy to appreciate the fact
that they're doing that. Yeah. Sure, I mean it's just
the city built up against ancient, ancient ruins. Yeah, it's
really really wonderful how they preserved everything. Yeah, it's neat.
That's the only place in Italy I've been but un Yeah,
(26:00):
it was awesome. I think, Uh someone else with was
complaining about how dirty it was, and I was like,
it's been here a long time, right, Yeah, you know, no,
it does have the funk of age over like the
whole thing. But yeah, it's still you just kind of
It's not gonna smell like Montreal. Does Montreal smell good?
I think Montreal is noted for being pretty clean for
a city. You can see that. It's a fastidious city.
(26:22):
That's what I've heard. You've never been to Canada, do
you haven't? I grew up near the border, so I've
been plenty of times. Yeah, and hey, early early spoiler.
We may be going out to Canada this fall, to Vancouver. Yeah, Vancouver,
r It's listen up. In the near future, we may
be coming to do some live show there this fall. Man,
(26:43):
they're gonna go nuts if we don't actually go through
with this, that they won't remember we're gonna go though, Okay, alright,
So we talked a little bit about um, the transition
from our from grave robbing to archaeology looting archaeologic sites
and is still a thing. It didn't go away completely.
(27:04):
So each country, in each state in the United States, like,
everyone has their own way to deal with this stuff.
There are a lot of archaeological acts that have been
passed throughout the world to preserve things and to make
sure there's not looting going on. But despite all their
best efforts, it still happens. And uh, trying things like
putting up a big sign this is don't dig here,
(27:26):
do not enter. Sometimes I'm more of a welcome invitation. Yeah,
so sometimes they get tricky in uh, in New York
they do things like environmentally sensitive do not enter, So
they'll try and trick folks into thinking that, you know,
all you who enter will die. Um. But people pay
money for artifacts still, and there is a black market.
People pay money for artifacts, and those people are very
(27:48):
frequently called museums well and private collectors. Yeah a lot
of times apparently, like dinosaur bones are super hot right now,
and Nicholas Cage has one that's contested. Um. It was
it was known to have been removed illegally from a
site that was never officially recognized um by basically some
(28:10):
this couple that goes in and like they're really good
at finding dinosaur bones, and then they sell him on
the black market and apparently he's got a really awesome skull.
Of course he does. Um. He also has a house
in New Orleans that was this like a torture murder
house in the nineteenth century that this really priestess owned
(28:32):
and like that's his house in New Orleans, like the
site of just blood baths. Yeah, he's a weird guy, man.
I know. When he married Patricia Arquette, he did some
crazy list of things, or maybe she came up with
a crazy list of things that he had to do
to marry her, and uh, he did them all and
(28:53):
it was a lot of it was like a big
stupid rich person treasure hunt like that was were creative
than that. Oh I can't remember, like find me a
black rose, um, all these things that are hard to
come by. Then he did it and he married her
and the divorced her. So it's a happy ending. Um.
(29:13):
But the black market, sorry, back to it if you're
in Peru. They estimate they have lost about eighteen million
dollars worth the artifacts and goods on the smugglers market.
And so they their Institute of Culture UM they register
that register their historic sites and they require that all
the collections are registered. UM. They've partnered with the International
(29:35):
Council of Museums and basically all these international museums they're
they're trying to get together to thwart the thriving underground
archaeological goods, market goods, collectible goods. Sure, all right, but
that brings us in. So that brings us to the
interesting point on who owns the stuff. That's a great question.
(29:58):
For a very long time it was museums UM because
they were the ones who sent in professional looters archaeologists
at the time UM to go in and basically rob
a developing country of its antiquities and riches and history
and culture. Basically. Uh. In a lot of cases, the
(30:21):
government in charge of the time was totally complicit, Like
for example, when um Yale sent in Hiram Bingham to
Machu Pichu and he came out with a lot of
artifacts from it. The proving government was totally in on
it at the time. I'm sure that the high officials
were getting tons of kickbacks from Yale for it. But nowadays,
(30:44):
a hundred years later, Yale is giving back it's Manchu
Pichu artifacts. There's been a big move towards trying to
get back things exactly because the proving government has said,
wait a minute, like, we're less corrupt than we were before,
and this is cultural heritage, and that belongs to us, Like, yeah,
you've had it for a hundred years, but like there
(31:06):
was ours for thousands of years, so give it back.
Not necessarily much. You teach you for thousands of years.
But there are plenty of antiquities that museums have had
for a very long time, right, but really belong to
the source country. Yeah, and that's a big sticking point
um every country. Like if if you want to know
(31:26):
who owns an artifact, if you find something, let's say, Uh,
it's gonna depend on where you are. Every municipality, every state,
every country has their own laws as far as finders
keepers laws they call them. Uh, if you're in New Zealand,
a lot of them are dated by time. Like if
it's newer than a certain age, go ahead and keep it.
It's older than a certain age, you've got to talk
(31:47):
to us about it. Uh, found not older? When it
was found? Well, it depends on what country. Some countries
have a date on how old it is, but I
think the date is when it was found. Yes, certain
countries for sure, when it's found, certain it's the age
of the object. Um. It just depends on where you are.
And but in the date of when it was found
(32:08):
is usually the date that that comes after whatever act
was passed. Exactly. So in New Zealand, for example, if
you found something prior to nineteen seventy six, which is
when the Antiquities Act of nineteen seventy five came into effect, UM,
you get to keep whatever you find right right. If
you found it after nineteen seventy six, then you have
(32:30):
to you have to alert the local authorities. If you're
in Sweden, UM, that has some pretty interesting laws. They say,
if if there's more than one object at a site,
then you have to report it to the government. If
it's just one thing that you find, you can keep
it UM. And they have a finder's reward to encourage
(32:50):
people to be honest about it. UM. And if it's
only the single object, you still have to report it.
If it's partially made of a precious metal or copper alloy,
but if it's If you're in Sweden you find an
old wooden bowl, right, I love this example, and that's
the only thing you find, then you get to keep it. Uh.
(33:11):
It's really interesting though. UM. The United States says the
National Historic Preservation Act and the Archaeological Resource Protection Act,
and they claim I think the site must be at
least a hundred years old and remains must be related
to past human life or activity. That means you have
to report it to the government. So it's like really
(33:35):
like granular depending on where you are and what the law.
That's just two countries, Like there's there's something called treasure
trove law, which is basically it's this, but it has
to do with finding a bunch of riches where that
are old enough that the owner is clearly now dead,
(33:55):
no one can lay claim to it, and that they
were placed in a place where, um, they shows intent
for them to be retrieved, like they were buried next
to a tree or something like that, rather than buried
in a grave, because the grave would indicate that they
were meant to stay there with the dead body. So
if you find a treasure trove, all sorts of laws
kick in, like in in uh in the u K.
(34:18):
In in England. You know, the Romans were all over
that place, so people find like hordes of Roman coins,
like when they're killing the ground in their farms, and
it used to be like, well that was yours. That's
not the case any longer. Yeah, sunken treasure, that's a
big controversial area too, because a lot of those are
private companies going after what they think is a lot
(34:42):
of dough. Do you know the gold? That's where the
concept of the camp thing going down with the ship
came from. How's that so? Uh? I was listening about
the fairy disaster and like the whether or not the
captain was supposed to stay on or the Costa concordia.
The tradition of the captain staying with the ship isn't
that The captains just well, the ship's going down, so
(35:02):
I'm supposed to die. The captain is supposed to stay
on until the ship is basically totally underwater, and then
he can get off. It has nothing to do with
him dying. He's supposed to stay on because under maritime law,
as long as the captains on the ship, it's not
up for salvage. But the moment the captain leaves the ship,
(35:23):
it's anybody's anybody who wants to go salvage the thing,
like that boat has been abandoned once the captain is
off the ship. So the captain is supposed to stay
on until it's basically not salvageable anymore. Then he can
he can leave that just so if a if a
ship were just a partially sink, then then it's still
salvageable and there's no captain. Yes, then you can claim it.
(35:46):
Apparently that the captain is still you know, on top
of the front of the boat, if he's anywhere sticking
out of the water. He's like, I'm staying, so you
have to stay too, bartender, that's interesting. Hit me up
with a balini. Uh. UNESCO in nineteen seventy the UNESCO
Convention established tried to establish some international standards for cultural property. Um.
(36:10):
But here's the deal with all those international organizations. They
can't demand that countries join, but they can encourage it,
and more than a country, a hundred countries have ratified
it so far. Yeah. But the thing is is like
even if you join and ratify it, you can still
violate it. International law is so toothless, it's ridiculous. But um,
(36:30):
under that convention though, it's like you said, it's usually uh.
They usually side with the source country of the object
as far as ownership, which is good, and that seems
to be the prevailing wind. Now, like the the if
the source country wants to lay claim to something, you
should give it back. It's part of a cultural heritage
that got scattered to the wind in the nineteenth century
when museums were again employing basically professional grave robbers to
(36:54):
go get them a bunch of stuff for the museum's collections.
And now the tides being reversed in a US. That's
called repatriation. Remember we talked about that in the um
the Shrunken Heads episode, Like those shrunken heads are being
repatriated back to the source. Yeah. Part it is something
that worked for a long time up until the early
twentieth century. And that is basically, when uh, you dig
(37:19):
up you let's say, excavate a site and you find
a bunch of great artifacts. Um, the country itself keeps
most of the stuff, but the digger can keep a
couple of things. And they don't spell out exactly how
many things because it was part. It wasn't like a law.
But for a long time, if you like, you know,
excavate a site, like hey, I want to keep these
(37:39):
three things, you can have the rest in the Country's
like great, that works great. It's like sharing almost, yeah,
and it's not almost, it's exactly sharing. And so we're
talking about the black market being pretty hot for antiquities
and UM artifacts. There's this um group called the International
Council of Museums that basically created a list um it's
(38:01):
called the Red List that they put out I think
on a regular basis, But then they'll put out emergency
ones too when suddenly, like a black market in a
certain area heats up, and it's pictures of specific items
and descriptions saying this item and things like it are
most likely to be smuggled and illegally sold in the
(38:21):
black market because there's a big market for him right now.
It's really interesting to go check out on the like
the most wanted list for artifacts. Yeah, but they'll they're like,
all the different artifacts that they have are really really
cool to just kind of browse through. And they have
a by region and country and stuff like that. What's
it called, uh, the International Council of Museums. You go
(38:42):
to their website and look for the Red lists. Those
guys party too. Have you ever been one of those conventions? Accidentally?
They are wild? Yeah. If you remember an International Council
of Museums convention, you weren't there. You didn't do it right?
All right? I think we should finish up with an
interesting little bit about the Nazi Party because Hitler in
(39:03):
the gang were way into archaeology because they believed if
they could find proof that Germans were the original Aryan
people's along with Thor and odin the Nordic gods, if
they could prove that we were the original people's and
we ran the earth, then that would give them the
(39:26):
right to go in and take your country. Right. So
they weren't just interested in things. They were interested in
trying to prove that they owned the world pretty much. Yeah,
that they were descended from the Aryan race, which was
the proto Indo European group. Yeah, the mythical yeah yeah, yeah,
so and that was I was not clear on that,
(39:47):
like our did the Aryan race definitely exist? Well, I
think the the Nordic gods, yeah, I don't know about that. Well,
they would be mythical, but yeah, there were the people
who worship them. They were the Arian race, right, I
don't know. That's a good question. So I think that
there was an Arian race in which we would call
(40:07):
the Nordic or Germanic people. So I think whether or
not what makes it mythical is the idea of whether
it was some pure white race made it some master
race in the eyes of the Nazis, so then it
may have been a mythical people. We'd love to hear
from you if you're an expert on early proto Indo
(40:28):
European cultures. It was there a group called the Arians
as far as the Nazis were concerned, Yes, there was,
and that the Nazis were the new version of that, right, yeah,
for sure. And UH and this started even pre war
in n Himmler actually founded um, something called the UH.
(40:49):
And this is German, of course, uh anina be that's
what I'm gonna call it. A h N E N
E R b E. Don't you speak German? Yeah, but
that it doesn't look like a German word. It's weird. Yeah,
it does look a little French. UM. And it was well,
it was known as the Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society.
(41:10):
And one of Hitler's bigs big plans was, you know,
when he took control of Germany, he took control of
the education system, everything, and he wanted to flood that
education system with Nazi propaganda. And so they formed this
you know, they call it a think tank, but what
they really did was a lot of archaeological digs all
over the world. Um, like you said, trying to prove
(41:30):
I mean we're talking Croatia, Greece, Russia, Iceland, North Africa.
They were going everywhere trying to find traces of what
they believe were ancient Germans in the original master race,
right and Um. One of the places they went was
Iceland because apparently that's where tool t h u l
E was, which was the seat of the Nordic gods. Right.
(41:52):
And they looked for um something called the Hoff, which
was a place where they were supposedly worshiped by the Arians.
And they said, we found it, we found this cave,
this mystical place of worship. Um. And somebody else came
along and said, no, this cave wasn't inhabited until the
eighteenth century, so not the hof. Nazis and then the
(42:14):
British and the Americans came in occupied Iceland and the
Nazis were not able to come back. That's just one
example of their failed expeditions. Right. Yeah, they had eighteen
archaeological expeditions total, and none of them, uh bore fruit.
They were fruitless. They were fruitless. They didn't provide any
information that the Nazis were the original master race because
(42:37):
they were not. That's right. They were just a bunch
of terrible people, all right. I think you can say
that I'm taking a stand on Nazis. I dare someone
to write in and to defend the Nazis. Yeah, I
dare you anything else. Oh you beat me to the punch. No,
I don't, man um and uh. If you want to
(42:59):
learn more about archaeology, how stuff Works is a veritable
library of articles on archaeology, everything you could possibly need
to know. Basically, you probably would get a degree if
you read everything on archaeology. Not true, you could, okay possibly?
Uh and um, just type archaeology into the search part
(43:23):
how stuff works. Allow me to spell that for you
A R C H A E O, L O G Y.
Is that one of those you have to sound out
in your head? No? Remember that was the first I
was able to spell that word earlier. I remember, but
I just know I see it in my head. Okay,
I see the letters. I think everyone has those words
still though as adults, you sound out that were difficult.
(43:45):
One of mine, for some reason is because I always
in my head at A B C, A U S
C and I still do that in my head. Mine
is uh pretty much anything with the C E I yeah,
spread oh man, are not just words, and it's even
got that accompanying rhyme I before you accept after see.
But any time I see a C and there's eyes
(44:07):
and he's involved, I have to go back and correct myself.
Basically that's called putting learning into practice. That's a dumb
I'm a dummy now okay, Oh speaking of speaking of dumb,
I haven't yet, which means I can still go on forever.
Go ahead. There are new T shirts available for people
who like Don't Be Dumb. Yes, Josh's uh Tony Award
(44:28):
winning web series, Uh would you have me confused? With
Neil Patrick Harris? Again, I think it's great. I think
any time if you're getting feedback where people are saying
this is the best thing I've ever seen and other
people are saying I don't get it at all, or
I hate you for making this, that means you're doing
something genius. Um. So, if you aren't familiar with Don't
Be Dumb, you can check it out on our website
(44:49):
or on our YouTube channel. If you are familiar and
you want a T shirt, you can go to our store. Um,
if you go to stuff you should know dot com
you can get to our store in the top navigation
and there are Josh sent me t shirt. Yeah that's great. Thanks,
that's a good one. But anyway, since I said all that,
I imagine chuck. Finally, it's a time at long last
(45:11):
for listener and mail. I'm gonna call this um thieving mailman.
I think this is sorry thieving garbage man. Um you're like,
oh yeah, hey, guys, listen to how tipping works and
have a funny story. Um. A couple of years ago
at Christmas, my mom wanted to leave our garbage man
(45:32):
a nice tip. She says, garbage man. By the way,
we're not saying that because I know sanitation workers proper term.
These are Emily Crawford's words. I should preface this by
saying that our garbage man isn't like the typical city
pickup guys. He has a small business and he comes
to collect people's trash at their garages with his pickup truck.
They must live in the sticks. My parents have a
(45:54):
long driveway and don't want to drag the trash can
to the end of the driveway, so they hired this guy.
My mom put some money and a card and a
white envelope um as the tip, and she didn't want
to tape the envelope to the trash bags for fear
of it being thrown away by accident. And it was wendy,
so she decided to take it to this iron horsehead
that we have sitting by a planter next to our
(46:14):
garage doors. She attached an image, but I don't have it.
Just imagine, you know, it's a little ring to his nose.
Later that day, when my mom was, no, this horseheads
because they have it like on the side. Yeah, they do.
It's on the side like from their bridle. I'm talking
about this picture I saw, trust me, I had a
ring through its nose. Yeah. It was like a knocker show. Okay,
(46:37):
I see that kind of thing. Uh So, later that day,
when my mom was I love that I looked at
this picture. You're like, no, it didn't look later that
are or you're lying eyes. Later that day, when my
mom was coming back home from running errands, she saw
that the trash had been picked up and the horsehead
was gone. The garbage man must have assumed it was
(46:59):
a gift for him. Well, and he took the envelope
in the horsehead. It wasn't valuable, but we also didn't
want to give it away. We never got it back
and never brought it up to the garbage man. But
I laugh when I think about his reaction was probably
what the heck? They gave me this envelope and a horsehead? Uh.
And I just hope you put it in his house somewhere,
(47:19):
So I hope you get a little laugh out of this.
We did from Emily Crawford. Nice, thanks a lot, Emily Crawford.
That's good stuff. And somewhere there that sanitation worker has
your your family heirloom. Um, that's a good story. You
know what. It reminded me of what the greatest movie
starring Emilia Westeves and Charlie Sheen ever made, Men at Work.
(47:42):
I never saw that. What I did not see it.
That is a good movie. You need to see that.
I know they're sanitation guys and they find something valuable,
probably that someone else wants and so they're in trouble
for it. But you just wrote the script. Yeah, no,
it's but all the hijinks set ensue in the meantime
are hilarious. Great supporting cats too, including Chainsaw from Summer
(48:04):
school Boy. Man. I love your taste of movies. It
runs the gamut, So uh? Is that it? That's it?
If you want to tell us a cute story about
your family, we love to hear those. You can tweet
to us at s y SK podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Discovery dot com and join us at our home on
(48:26):
the web, our place for great t shirts. Stuff you
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com
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Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
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