Nearly half a million kids ages 5-16 around the world are participating right now in the First Lego League challenge Unearthed – based on archaeology, teams are challenged to “uncover the past to discover the future” by building and programming a LEGO robot that navigates the missions of the game. Teams of kids throughout the United States have been contacting archaeologists at museums and universities, and through initiatives like Skype a Scientist for consultations. Professional organizations like the Archaeological Institute of America or Society for American Archaeology are providing online resources to help teams develop their projects. In the past few months, my colleagues and I have interacted with kids not only in California, but in Illinois, Florida, Minnesota, and Brazil to name just a few!
It is an exceedingly popular theme this year – and it’s not surprising. For kids, archaeology is the perfect combination of hands-on, material based exploration combined with a detective story trying to puzzle together a picture of the past from bits of stones, bones, and pottery. It speaks to children’s innate curiosity about the world and their place in it. Add LEGOs to the mix and you clearly have a winning combo.
Turns out it’s not just kids who love archaeology. Documentaries, TV series, and movies on archaeology or archaeological themes are popular. Hardly a week goes by without news of some archaeological discovery making international headlines, like about the giant statues on Rapa Nui or the complex domestication history of cats. Archaeology sells.
People also spend their time and money on exploring archaeology. Archaeotourism – visiting archaeological sites and museums on vacation – is popular. The Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt attracted more than 15 million visitors last year. In the US, many of the most famous archaeological sites are in or around national parks, such as Mesa Verde National Park, that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year despite their more remote locations.
Why does archaeology resonate with so many of us? Perhaps partly because it taps into our inner child – our joy of discovery. But it also provides us with a unique perspective on the world and ourselves. Archaeology amplifies the voices and lives of normal people – not just the victors or rulers. Through the fragmented items people left behind, archaeologists reconstruct real people’s lives. We uncover the food they ate; the houses they built, the art they created; the toys, games, and instruments they played. We see how they cared for their sick and injured; honored their ancestors; prayed to their gods; and laid their loved ones to rest. We recreate their worlds, politics, economies, and rituals from the traces they left us. And with all of this, we see other ways of living; other ways of interacting; and other ways of organizing societies that often feel very strange and distant from our own today.
Despite this distance, they teach us that although their lives are finite, they can still be felt today, even if only through a piece of pottery with a fingerprint, or a portrait of a person from 30,000 years ago carved into mammoth ivory. Ideas that changed the world like the wheel; ancient cities that emerged and eventually abandoned; political institutions that rose and fell; all of these show us that humans are always changing and adapting. Archaeology provides us with so many examples of different ways of living, surviving, and thriving, as well as responses to challenges of political instability, climate change, and warfare.
Many news stories today challenge our humanity – they show us the worst of us, our politicians, our worlds. Archaeology speaks to the breadths and depths of our humanity, our understanding of interconnectedness of the people and the earth we inhabit. We can marvel at the ingenuity and courage of colonizing the Pacific, navigating areas of open sea the size of north America with low tech but complex knowledge of seafaring and astronomy; and we cringe at the brutality of a mass grave from 6200 years ago, where an entire village of women, men, and children were murdered. We bend our brains to imagine worlds very different from our own – while knowing that they are not figments of imagination but that they once existed, as we do now. Sometimes it reminds us to be grateful for living in our current time and place.
This cultural heritage is worth protecting, studying, and supporting. Funding cuts to the National Science Foundation, National Park Service, and other federal agencies have already curtailed archaeological research worldwide and eliminated hundreds of archaeology jobs, leaving U.S. heritage unprotected. Without this stewardship, cultural heritage in the US is at grave risk; so too is our ability to conduct research elsewhere and train new generations of archaeologists.
Archaeology may never cure cancer – although it does provide insight into the evolution of many diseases and the human body that help other researchers understand these pathogens better. It may also not develop new technologies – although it can play a role in creating more humane and ethical AI technologies. It enriches our understanding of the planet, our species, and ourselves, and challenges us to address current environmental issues in novel (or ancient) ways. While funding has always only been a tiny drop in the overall research funding bucket (0.06% of NSF’s overall budget in 2023), private foundations can’t make up the difference – we need to fight to reinstate funding to our federal grant agencies, research institutions, and universities.
Archaeology reminds us that fragile lives can leave enduring legacies. It demands humility, highlights our humanity, and inspires all of us – not just this year’s First League LEGO teams – “to uncover the past to discover the future”. Let’s not let it fade away.
