On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 11:49 AM Paul Koning via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> Old stuff being preserved is often a matter of chance or luck rather than > planning. Consider the Linear B clay tablets; those were preserved because > they were accidentally baked, in the fires that were set when the city was > sacked. Papyrus documents were preserved in Egypt because it's desert, but > not in other places that aren't quite so dry. > > As some civil engineer put it, it's not that the old timers built so much > better allowing us to see the buildings they put up centuries ago -- > rather, the buildings that are still there for us to see are the ones that > happened to be strong enough. Sometimes just barely so, like the cathedral > in Utrecht (the Netherlands) -- part of it blew down in a storm centures > ago, but about 3/4 of it didn't and is still good today. > Hi Paul. I'm aware of all this, which is why I suggested a rock wall in a cavern, recordings etched into which generally are preserved through time unless there's extreme tectonic activity in the vicinity that destroys the cave or the rock wall. Besides the various paper and clay documents we have today that are with us through sheer fortune, data carved into rock (and cave paintings) seem to have universally withstood the test of time. Sellam
