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?

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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?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They have been digging forever but it was called grave robbing before. The difference between the two is meticulously recording what you found and where in relationship to the other items and location. The first method was from greed the second method is archeological curiosity and understanding.
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