ELi5 : Why does it seem a lot of archeology began so recently in the 20th and 19th centuries? Why weren’t we digging up stuff much earlier?

Question

It seems many of the most important archeological findings were in the 20th and 19th century. Why did humans wait so long to start digging stuff up?

In: 961

Answer 1

Oh, people have been doing archeology for a LONG time. In fact: ancient Egypt did archeology on its own, more ancient self. (That’s how old they are…)

Also: tomb robbing was a things.