Ancient Tomb in Spain Destroyed and Replaced with a Picnic Table | Hacker News Reader

Ancient Tomb in Spain Destroyed and Replaced with a Picnic Table

npr.org

22 pointsdiodorus7 comments

Serious question here: what's the actual historical significance of this tomb? I don't see anything here indicating what was actually in it, just that it's really old.

Not every historical site is actually of any importance. I don't know much about this site, but I do know that there were literally thousands of nearly-identical archaeological sites in the area of Israel where I lived for a while. Not all of them were even excavated, and many times archaeologists would excavate a site, only to leave behind literally tonnes of artifacts lying in piles at the site. A historical site of value teaches us something about the people who lived there, but a bunch of identical clay amphorae made in the same style from the same clay, containing the same foods and wines, in houses constructed identically, don't teach us anything.

Stuff like the destruction of Palmyra (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) is a real tragedy. This, not so much.

True, nothing critical to understanding of history was probably lost here. But I would consider it a city planning level tragedy, if I lived there.

We cannot preserve every tidbit our ancestors have left behind. But if a site has been settled since the neolithic times and there are artifacts remaining from those days it would be nice to leave a piece of history as a reminder of continuity and a personal connection to history. To me, while I appreciate academic knowledge, actually laying my hands on items carved and touched by previous generations creates a sense of connection that being merely cognitively aware of the facts cannot evoke.

The similar difference in looking at a picture of a fossil, and actually observing and touching one.

I have no idea of the density of historical relics in the area, though. And, yeah, I know, it's all in my head. But still.

On a related note, on my bucket list was to visit the ruins at Palmyra ... now that is never going to happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/24/world/middleeast/islamic-s...

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/isis-executed-the-top-arch...

This is not accidental, probably, because it was happened before a lot of times. And we are talking here of historical remainings from 3000-6000 years age. Afganisthan buddas by comparison were carved in the 6th century.

Example: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Petr%C3%B3glifos_en_Galic...

Area of protection of the archaeological collection of petroglyphs in A somoz -> granted administrative permit for creating a feeedlot for pigs in the area

Some areas where just cleared for corrupt majors and petrogliphs ended in the local landfill "nobody knows why".

A Laxe do Cervo: the deer grabbed in stone vanished. It was unprotected and part of a path.

january-2015 A company is hired to clean an archeological park. Deletes an entire labyrinth with the chain of a tractor.

2013 "Coto de caza" (game preserve) painted over petrogliph

Lots of dissapeared stones and lots of "oups we deleted 4000 years art for mistake... again. How bad luck. Now lets build the new route over it, as planned"

In fairness, it looked a lot like a dilapidated picnic table and chairs to begin with. At least the park will look nicer now.

You are not serious, right?

As the top post points out, while obviously a bit of a pity, losing this piece of the puzzle is not going to majorly impact our understanding of history, in fact this 'funny' article may bring about more appreciation of artefacts, maybe some people will register those they know about in response, the net effect could well be a positive !

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