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Archaeology or archeology[a] is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time.

The discipline involves surveying, excavation, and eventually analysis of data collected, to learn more about the past. In broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Read more...

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'I am horrified': Archaeologists are fuming over ancient human relative remains sent to edge of space (www.livescience.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Fragmentary remains of two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, were carried aboard a Virgin Galactic flight on Sept. 8. Departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the fossils, carried by South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash in a cigar-shaped tube, were rocketed to the edge of space.

"I am horrified that they were granted a permit," Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches. "This is NOT science."

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[–] Cris_Color 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The less atmosphere between you and the sun, the more radiation you'll experience. There was definitely less atmosphere between the remains and the sun in this case than if they were shipped by plane, making the radiation higher.

And if they were shipped somewhere by plane during normal transport by academics, they would have taken the appropriate steps to ensure the preservation of the sample.

I can't say I really understand why some people seem so surprised that the scientists would be unhappy at this, or feel like they scientists are being unreasonable here. Their whole job is to learn as much as they can from what samples we can recover from the past for the benefit of humanity's understanding, and a priceless sample was needlessly handled in a way that may make it useless to their studies, because a billionaire though it would be entertaining to shoot it into space for no real reason...

In what world would they not be unhappy with this situation?