Preserve Our History

3,000 years from now, recorded history may well be destroyed in some way we never imagined; like a freak farm machinery accident or intense sun spot activity or perhaps roving bands of vicious feral weenie dogs. It will be up to archaeologists, digging our civilization out of the sand, to try to piece together how we lived.

It is a well known fact that practically all forms of architecture eventually degrade into their component parts, returning to dust. The notable exceptions are stone or pottery. The same is true with recording media; the only recording media that has withstood the test of time is engraved in stone or pottery.

This method of historical preservation has proven itself in many diverse locations around the world, such as the Mayan and Incan civilizations in South America, early Egyptian, Stonehenge in England, the mysterious stone heads of Easter Island, etc. Of these, we know the most about the early Egyptian culture simply because they left behind hieroglyphs that describe many different aspects of their culture. We can't make the same claims about the Mayan or Incan civilizations; their people simply vanished. They very well may have left a note on the door explaining how they had to step out for more dish soap --- we just don't know.

I propose we immediately begin creating chards of pottery with hieroglyphs engraved on them. We can place them in what should be obvious locations thousands of years from now. Petroglyphs chiseled into rock formations may also be useful in cataloging our various ways of life and assorted excesses. These permanent records will prevail through the centuries (and subsequent nuclear holocausts and weenie dog attacks) and assure our history is properly recorded.