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Mark McKerracher

Archaeologist and Writer

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1 Year of Farming Unearthed!

Posted on June 27, 2013August 26, 2021 By Mark
Uncategorized

It’s the first anniversary of Farming Unearthed… sort of! It’s just over a year since I first established the website, and almost a year since the first blog post (29th June 2012). In honour of this auspicious occasion, I offer a poem…

Why archaeology?

Why archaeology? Isn’t it… old?
Why sift through the dirt for a fragment of gold?
Why measure those flints, why protect the dry bones?
And why stall construction – why delay the new homes?

Why waste all that time poring over old seeds,
When there’s hunger right now, and too many to feed?
Why not look to the living, and the future instead?
Let sleeping dogs lie, leave the past to the dead?

But think of the present relentless pursuit,
Of empty ambition – when will it bear fruit?
Does it not need the wisdom of centuries past,
The lessons of ages, and power to last?

If we just struggle forwards, will truth ever find us –
When the sum of our wisdom is always behind us?
Can we count on our visions of future and youth –
Without history’s warnings, antiquity’s truth?

So why not archaeology? The stories untold,
The nuggets of wisdom worth bags full of gold,
The link with past ages of infinite worth,
Humanity’s story – just under the earth.

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