Many Americans see academia as dry and
formal, elite and lofty palaces of higher thought staffed by
dedicated monk-like professional educators who wouldn't know a good
joke if it hit them in the face with a pie. People whose sense of humor was removed
in early childhood. But maybe its just that their sense of humor is
on the dry side, with a hint of subtlety foreign to the average
American who, in general, like their humor broadly expressed.
This was illustrated in a recent
article in the NY Times about an archaeological dig in Gabii, Italy,
which is 12 miles away from Rome. The architecture revealed is from
approximately 300 BC and is significant because so much of the
evidence we have about Rome comes from the Imperial period or by
writers of the Imperial period looking back to a Rome they idealized
as being simple and unpretentious, inhabited by equally humble and
unpretentious Romans. (1)
There are several surprising things
about this dig, which the article goes into, but one in particular
stands out: whereas in Rome history is layered like a cake, with
levels going down a very long way, in Gabii, once the city had its
day, it was covered over and forgotten. It is currently lying on
undeveloped land. So no Medieval or Rennaisance buildings needed to
be moved or conserved. No local pope had robbed the buildings for
their materials like happened in Rome. No persnickety Romans to
complain that the dig is disturbing the tourists. So this is very
lucky indeed, if one is an archaeologist.
But getting back to the topic of our
post, on the humor of academics, or at least of archaeologists, the
article quotes Christopher Ratte, director of a museum of archaeology
in Michigan, who expressed surprise that one could "break new
ground" in an area that was so well-researched.
Get it?
An archaeology dig "breaking new ground"?
An archaeology dig "breaking new ground"?
I bet no one has ever used that joke in Archaeology before.
NY Times Article on the dig at Gabii
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1. This is extremely doubtful. That
Romans were ever modest, noble, and filled with a self-effacing
humility is a little hard to believe.
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