Reconstruction is great provided archaeologists are done with the site and at least some of the tourism revenue generated is put towards archaeology.
Ancient Mesopotamia is, in my view, one of the most exciting fields out there, simply because their written records are imperishable. There's thousands of years of history, not pre-history, there. Much of it has already been discovered but, for want of money, not yet fully studied. Not yet deciphered. Not yet understood.
We know the approximate locations of important cities that have yet to be found. We know roughly where they are, but they're not in easy places to access due to remoteness as well as political instability and violence. We currently only have records from other places to tell us they exist, but we could find entire libraries and hear from these ancient people in their own words.
There are few other frontiers in all of archaeology that offer such potential for gaining intimate knowledge of ancient human societies. Anything that can inject a little much-needed funding into the field is welcome.
I don't see the problem. If a building is damaged we should not reconstruct it? I'd much rather see the Colosseum in its original state, covered in marble, than the current state, after centuries of neglect and looting from the italians.
That's still not the original state. In addition to not always knowing what exactly it was supposed to look like, using non-authentic materials and methods (power-tools) will effect the final outcome. If people are more interested in the experience than the genuine artifact, full-scale replicas can be created offsite without damaging ancient artifacts (BTW there's a 1:1 Parthenon replica in Tennessee, ive never been but I hear its impressive).
Also, the article barely mentioned this but the biggest source of damage to these specific ruins actually isn't being adjacent to major battles in two modern conflicts, it's Saddam-era "restorations". The reason why the zigguraut looks so much more pristine than any other ancient ruins is that what you're looking at was built in the 80s on top of the actual ancient ruins. It wasn't a particularly accurate restoration either; they used concrete and Saddam even made them stamp his face on some of the bricks so future generations would associate him with nebuchanezzar.
The value of ancient buildings is in what we learn from whatever survives. How can we rebuild the Coliseum to its original state without first learning what that state was? The Coliseum was operational for centuries and underwent constant modification. Which period should it be restored to, and to what end?
"Which period should it be restored to, and to what end?"
Rome at peak power around year 100. And why? To finally see the gladiators Zuckerberg vs Musk celebrity deathmatch obviously.
I suspect it would end like the gladiator match in 'The Life of Brian', with Musk having a heart attack before he could even get in striking range.
>To finally see the gladiators Zuckerberg vs Musk celebrity deathmatch obviously.
NGL, would love to see techbros battle to the death for our entertainment.
Hey, if we're already near the fall of the empire, we might as well get some bread and games out of it.
Though Suck and Bezos would easily kill Musk since Zuck is a martial arts expert and Bezos is roided out of his mind, while Musk is kinda doughy like a human slug monster.
As long as they're done faithfully; there's reproductions of old ships too for museum purposes, since the old ships just rotted away over time (I assume). Rebuilding them with modern knowledge of e.g. wood / rope / sail preservation will be valuable.
It also makes me think of a reddit question the other day - why did people cover up their beautiful wooden flooring with carpets? The answer is that they didn't have epoxy sealants and the like back then so it was maintenance heavy.
"As long as they're done faithfully"
You mean they need to be true believers of Anu, Enlil and Istar?
Yeah, that would likely help the spirit of restoration efforts..
"why did people cover up their beautiful wooden flooring with carpets?"
Don't carpets also provide good insulation? When you are cold and do not have automatic heating build into the ground ... most people appreciate warm feed over aesthetics.
> why did people cover up their beautiful wooden flooring with carpets
For a minute there i thought you were talking about the 70s.
Considering the Greek's love of what modern people consider garishly colored statues, my first instinct would have been that it's for decorative reasons.
Like Newgrange in Ireland. “Reconstructed” in the ‘60s and ‘70s based largely on the opinions of one person in a matter now considered to be mostly speculative. After 5 millennia, it now seems that “conservation” efforts have completed destroyed its original form.
It would be far more facinating to fund something like the ongoing construction of a true mideval castle in France, where they are re creating the teqcniques used by building and then testing for accuracy, and refining there methods by letting thins weather and be used in daily operations to be able to compare wearmarks and longevity to original archiological evidence, in France there work and workers have directly been used in the rebuilding of the great chapell burned down in paris a decade ago.
So a full on mesoptaimian city on the banks of the Euphraties, and maybe we can find out what on earth "the things of stone" are, among other almost infuriating criptic references that leave us grasping for meaning, like a bunch of dweebs listening to the cool kids talking about getting down with the gods themselves