ARTIFACTS and ECOFACTS?!?!?

Question

what are the artifacts and ecofacts that we are leaving behind todayy, for future archaeologists to find one day?!

Answer 1

radioactive material and landfills

Answer 2

I heard on the History Channel a topic similar to what you are asking. One guy said that if all humans suddenly disappeared, in only 4,000 years, there would be only a few items remaining to suggest that anyone was ever here at all. Items such as the vast open pit mines for example. But cities would all have collapsed and blown down with a layer of top soil over the top.

Answer 3

An artifact is something left at a site due to human presence.  Pottery sherds, beads, etc.

An ecofact is something left in an area due to animal or plant presence, such as the accumulation of bones in a cave that tells us what animals were living in the area during a certain period of time, and leads us to infer what people may have been eating/hunting, what the environment was like, etc.

The difference?  An artifact has been altered by a human, whereas an ecofact has not.  Remember - anthropology and its main areas are the study of HUMANS, so any information that allows us to learn about how humans lived is important to archaeology.

So... applying this to your question.  Garbage is correct, as artifacts.  Building remains too, evidence of our infrastructure, such as roads. Textual accounts that are preserved and kept in collections or libraries.  For ecofacts, the changes in environment due to pollution, global warming, etc. will leave a record of the changes in the environment.

Answer 4

xbox and mcdonalds wrappers, plastic sunglasses

Answer 5

Garbage! Archaeology is also known as "garbology"... So, mostly anything left in a dump somewhere would be great to study some day, once that "civilization" has moved on, or is forgotton. =)