Archeology, Plastic And, Space Exploration

In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, momentous discoveries were made in archeology. There were excavations of Assyria and Babylon. 

Perhaps the most famous single discovery of the time was that of King Tut's Tomb. King Tut had not been an exceptional pharaoh, actually dying in his teens. What is so significant about his tomb is that, unlike nearly all of the other royal tombs, it still contained all of it's riches because it had been missed by ancient grave robbers. The unearthing of the entire city of Ur, in Mesopotamia, captivated the world.

At around the same time it was the Gilded Age with people building fabulous wealth through business. The modern era of "big business", with widely-known corporate brands, was taking shape.

I have long thought that there is a strong connection between the two. Archeological discoveries, much of which was of a relatively mundane nature such as bookkeeping on clay tablets, has had a great effect on the development of the logos and packaging of consumer goods.

In the backs of our minds, archeology reminds us that someday our times will be ancient times. But the archeological future of our times is complicated by our use of paper, and then digital, to store information. Unlike the clay tablets and carvings in stone of ancient times, our digital data will be utterly lost and paper, unless it is carefully preserved, does not last for centuries.

We have seen this already, in the posting "Archeological Representation", November 2012 on the World And Economics Blog, http://markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/2012/11/archeological-representation.html

On the other hand our use of plastic has a great effect on the archeological future of our times. Most plastics are very resistant to environmental degradation and can last for a very long time.

There is also no erosion in space, other than the impacts of micrometeorites. The remnants of lunar missions, the footprints of the astronauts, and the tire tracks of the lunar rovers, may easily last for many thousands of years.

Likewise, since the moon has no atmosphere which can cause orbits to decay, spent rocket stages and abandoned command modules may be in orbit around the moon and the sun, waiting to be examined by future archeologists, for thousands of years.

Mars has an atmosphere, but it is thin and mostly composed of inert carbon dioxide. Mars seems to have had water at one time, but not to have water or weather now. This will preserve all of the spacecraft that have landed on Mars.

Then there are the spacecraft that have gone on through interplanetary space, and on into interstellar space, meaning beyond our Solar System.

What about on earth, corporate logos and names particularly on plastic packaging that can last a very long time? I have long believed that part of the underlying psychology behind advertising and packaging is a thought of how we will be remembered beyond our time, prompted by news of spectacular archeological discoveries.

In exploring ancient Egypt, it was found that pharaohs were represented by a logo that enclosed the pharaoh's name and very much resembled a modern corporate logo. It was known as a cartouche. Could it be that a cartouche is actually the ancestor of corporate logos?

The landfills of today could be the archeological digs of the future. Archeologists two thousand years from now might uncover a landfill that was active in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries. By comparison with what was recovered from other landfills of that era, it will enter studies of ancient history that McDonald's and Burger King had many widespread locations but that Dave's Sub Shop was unique to the town that the landfill once served.

It is human nature to occasionally give some thought to how we, and our times, will be perceived by future generations. Archeology is nothing new, there were archeologists in ancient times. But the fantastic archeological discoveries of relatively recent times has given it a whole new dimension. Time capsules have become popular as a way of communicating, at least one-way, with the future.

Although I do not suppose that it is documented anywhere, is this maybe part of the underlying reason that we do not incinerate or recycle trash more? It is not that we want to litter but we subconsciously want to leave behind landfills full of plastic artifacts, to be sure that the future will not forget us since all of our digital data will almost certainly be inaccessible.

Remember that the Space Age was also the Nuclear Age, and the Nuclear Age came first. Could it be that part of the underlying reason for space exploration was that, knowing there was a chance that our days might be numbered unless we could send colonies of people into space, it would at least leave behind artifacts for future generations, safe from destruction, just as past generations had done for our generation?

Remember that the two spacecraft's Voyager I and Voyager 2, launched in 1977, contained extensive time capsules, and messages to anyone who might find them. This included representations of what humans look like and recordings of music.

I consider this as representing an important part of what the Space Age, as well as packaging and corporate logos, are all about.