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

It probably has a lot to do with the increased support for scientific discovery (government grants etc), the superior technology making it easier to find things, and the ability to easily travel to remote parts of the globe. It’s certainly far less dangerous and labour intensive these days.