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Pepperonidogfart t1_iv96cuq wrote

Reply to comment by KnowledgeAmoeba in A 1000-year-old Viking silver treasure found in Sweden by drexa24

There are so many burial mounds dotted around the landscape there. Im wondering if theyve all been excavated.

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badniff t1_iv9boav wrote

They have not. There is too much to properly excavate. We do not excavate unless there is a specific research question we want to answer, or if the site is going to be destroyed by buildings, roads etc. Remember that technology and excavation techniques are improving over time while excavation is a destructive process so we want to leave sites untouched for future scientists as well. This is one reason why metal detector use is regulated as well. /Swedish anthropologist

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Pepperonidogfart t1_ivo6lfl wrote

Are independent professional excavations illegal even with the landlords permission? I feel like if i were a billionaire id make it my lifes work. There are probably some incredible things waiting under a few of those mounds.

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badniff t1_ivofrt9 wrote

It's been some time since I studied archaeology, but as I remember everything that exists below ground belongs to the state, and any object dated older than 1850 is protected by law for the sake of conservation. If you find something that looks really old while digging in the lawn for example, you have to report this to the local museum so that they can examine it (preferable on location if possible). What is most interesting to archaeologists is finding new unknown sites. There is a map detailing all the known archaeologically interesting/important sites in Sweden (LINK zoom and look around a bit, imagine where would be a nice strategic location and look there). These are places were you need special permit to dig or build, outside of the regular controls.

To get a permit to excavate you must have a reason for it. What archaeology is about is not finding underground objects, it is learning about the past. You must motivate what you are going to research and why that excavation is necessary for the research. What do you hope to learn? Can it be examined non-invasively using modern technology instead?

There is another reason excavation is done and that is during building projects. If you want to build something and that happens to disturb (or find) a site, then you are required to finance the excavation. It is really the unexpected and unknown finds that are most exciting in my opinion, since they always teach us something new.

Now, even if you have a permit for excavation, that excavation must be handled by researchers with the appropriate level of education and skills. thankfully education is free in sweden so if you take the time and study diligently that shouldn't be too big of a hurdle.

But if you are rich and want to contribute to the knowledge of the past, we can probably learn more by doing more intensive surveying of landscapes with modern techniques and tools. My home region has very few known sites, probably because it has been and still is more less a dense forest. By using modern surveying tools, and the funding to hire enough manpower it could be possible to find a lot of unknown sites.

Yet I sympathize, I also am very curious about what we might find if we excavate everything, but many of the gravmounds just contain ashes of the deceased. There is always an ethical dilemma there, does excavating the grave yield enough knowledge to motivate disturbing it? Yet if somebody came up with a vast sum of money, I'm certain that archaeologists would pitch a lot of interesting research and excavations that they have not been able to do because of limited funding.

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Pepperonidogfart t1_ivp0684 wrote

Thanks for such a thorough reply. Im definitely not wealthy enough to start funding excavations and surveyors but if i ever am id love to fund such pursuits. In regards to the morality of it id say that it is quite honorable for the deceased to truly live on forever if their* affects are displayed in a museum. But, i suppose wed be ripping them from an eternal rest and separating them from all of their beloved goods, horses and servants if we are to believe their religions are true.

Perhaps my knowledge is incorrect but if the Jutes, Swedish Vendel people and Danes got around as much as it seems we could likely learn a lot about the rest of the world of their time based on what they are buried with. With their huge trade networks i feel like there is a lot of potential to bring more light to the dark ages.

This is, of course, the hopes and dreams of an un-educated layman lol. So apologies for any inaccuracies.

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