{"id":7771,"date":"2005-08-16T09:27:09","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T16:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/08\/16\/spoilsports.html"},"modified":"2005-08-16T09:27:09","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T16:27:09","slug":"spoilsports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/16\/spoilsports.html","title":{"rendered":"Spoilsports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadly, cunning booby traps in ancient tombs<\/a>, Indiana Jones-style, are a Hollywood myth. Dammit.<\/p>\n

It’s rare that an archaeologist can walk into a newly-discovered ancient building and start nosing around. Very rare. OK, it never happens. You see, debris starts accumulating in a building long before it’s done being built. It was only through the constant efforts of the custodial staff that the priests of Indy’s temple weren’t kicking their way through mounds of dirt, dried leaves, and soda cans on their way to human sacrifices a thousand years ago. When the janitors quit things went to pot quickly–today the typical Mesoamerican temple lies buried under the accumulated junk of centuries. Nobody will be running down those halls until somebody, preferably a volunteer or student working for free who still thinks archaeology is romantic, has shoveled out all that dirt. With a soup spoon. And sifted it for busted crockery and chicken bones.<\/p>\n

That dirt isn’t just in your clothes, hair, shoes, and fingernails; it’s also in any machines the ancients hoped would kill you. Here’s this week’s home experiment: Bury your car at the beach. Leave it there a month, then dig it up and try to start it. Didn’t work, did it? Neither would the ancients’ machines.<\/p>\n

If there were any, I mean. That’s the thing, you see. The main reason archaeologists have nothing to fear from booby traps isn’t that the machines have been buried a couple millennia. It’s that the ancients just didn’t have cool machines like automatic door closers or trip-wired blowguns or enormous ball returns. Archaeologists know this not only because they have never found the ball returns but also because the ancients didn’t brag about them. If Pharaoh Amunhotep XXIII had something like that, or thought of it, or had somebody on the Cool Weapons staff who thought of it, there would be stellae (upright inscribed stones) trumpeting his total coolness and showing giant bowling balls knocking down Midianites like squishy duckpins.<\/p>\n

Oh, well. We’ll always have Killer Dungeons.<\/p>\n

(via GeekPress<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sadly, cunning booby traps in ancient tombs, Indiana Jones-style, are a Hollywood myth. Dammit. It’s rare that an archaeologist can walk into a newly-discovered ancient building and start nosing around….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/15\/after_the_delug.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":0},"title":"After the deluge","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Feb-05 12:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Things go in cycles: The myths of Mahabalipuram were first set down in writing by British traveller J Goldingham, who visited the South Indian coastal town in 1798, at which...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/24\/isil-proves-once-again-they-are-assholes.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":1},"title":"ISIL proves (once again) they are assholes","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Aug-15 12:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Killing people. Raping people. Blowing up ancient artifacts. All in a day's stomach-churning work.Is it worth sending US troops in? From a strict \"are they an existential threat to us?\" perspective, no. But it's certainly worth working with countries in the region to do something about them. Which may mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130486,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/24\/when-bad-stereotypes-and-modern-geopolitics-and-money-collide.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":2},"title":"When Bad Stereotypes and Modern Geopolitics (and Money) Collide","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 24-Apr-16 9:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So Marvel has gotten a lot of heat in some circles about \"whitewashing\" the character of the Ancient One in the upcoming Dr. Strange movie, genderbending the timeless Oriental master of the mystic arts into a bald Tilda Swinton. Not that there's anything wrong with a bald Tilda Swinton, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133892,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/yet-another-entry-for-my-bucket-list.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":3},"title":"Yet another entry for my Bucket List","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jul-17 8:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd love to visit here and the other rich archaeological sites in Cambodia. (And, frankly, in most places.) At one of the world's newest UNESCO sites, an ancient forest city that once ran an empire Stunning photos of Cambodia's Sambor Prei Kuk temple zone, whose name means \"temple in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137074,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/07\/dealing-with-the-misogyny-of-ancient-art.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":4},"title":"Dealing with the misogyny of ancient art","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Sep-18 9:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"I think this article makes an interesting and positive case for addressing the misogyny and violence against women that's frequently depicted in ancient art (the examples given being from Greece).[1] Abductions and rapes and attacks -- how do we deal with the abusive treatment in an era when simply talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/greek-art-gropw.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8264,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/01\/03\/a_grave_subject.html","url_meta":{"origin":7771,"position":5},"title":"A grave subject","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 3-Jan-06 4:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Just to show I can post something other than Q&A memes, here's a spiffy site with photos from graveyards. As I commented to Doyce when he posted this, I find...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}