Eternal Embrace

Knowing my fascination with the macabre, the HB sent me an article with these photos yesterday. The skeletons were found by archaeologists in Italy and are suspected to be 5000-6000 years old. They are the bones of a man and a woman.

I had a teacher in elementary school who used to read us books about famous people in history. One of the books was about Marie Curie and after hearing the story I told my mom I wanted to be a scientist. (This was not typical of me at all, I also remember telling her I wanted to be a waitress.) But it was because Marie Curie was a scientist and she had found gold once. She was actually famous for her work with chemicals, radiation, etc. Anyway, that was the beginning. And I'd always loved history, old things, Bible stories, and learning about the Maya. Then I also wanted to do archaeology to have an outdoor job because I love the outdoors.

My career in archaeology went as far as my field school in Escalante--it got re-buried. After excavating 2 Anasazi pithouses one summer and doing 3 weeks of archaeological survey we reburied our findings to leave the natural environment, saving only portions of what we'd found. I liked the actual work, the digging in the hot sun, not the boring archaeological reports and the speculative nature of the job. I hope that if someone were to dig up my house and find nothing but candy wrappers they wouldn't assume that was my primary means of sustenance.

Still though the idea of doing archaeology is romantic to me, it's alluring and always will be. It's not treasure, just the idea of seeing life through different eyes and learning what makes life meaningful to people. These bones say it all.