How do ancient ruins become buried?

Question

I can understand natural disasters like lava and ash, but take today's news of the discovery of a 'rich' tomb in greece. A pic of the excavation looks like the structure was buried in dirt. How does that happen?

Answer 1

To make it very simple, there are areas of erosion and areas of deposition.  Areas of erosion are typically steep.  Areas of deposition are generally flat areas beneath areas of erosion to make it very simplified.  Humans usually live on areas of deposition otherwise we would end up climbing alot.  If the humans did live on areas of erosion, obviously their ruins would not last and would erode away without getting buried.  Anyway over hundreds of years and many floods or just rain and wind, the dirt piles up in layers.  You can't notice it from day to day or even year to year but after a few decades, it might become noticable.  Obviously there are some areas that have higher deposition rates than others.  One reason caves are very good places to look for fossils is the dirt layers there accumulate so slowly.  Even in a cave the dust from the air deposits on the floor of the cave.  Anyway, I hoped that helped.

Answer 2

Aside from mudslides and so forth, every day the Earth is bombarded by meteorites. I think it's to the tune of 10 tons a year. This adds up - the Earth is constantly gowing in size.

Also, winds can shift soil and deposit it elsewhere. Then there is the natural accumulation of organic debris each growing season (grass, leaves, twigs, trees, animal manure, etc.) which also deepens soil.

Answer 3

It happens over the course of a very long time. It is difficult to think that natural forces could jt bury something, but it happens all the time. Our world is constantly changing, whether noticeable or not. For instance, you've heard of the Fertile Crescent, right? The most productive farmland of the ancient world. Green and lush and healthy. The Fertile Crescent is modern day Iraq. A desolate, dry, hot environment. Most ruins end up getting covered in areas like this that are dry and sandy that don't get a huge amount of water. In areas like this rock erodes into small sand particles which can be picked up by windstorms and water and carried to a new destination. This dirt or sand builds up and eventually, over maybe a couple thousand years, the ruin becomes entirely covered.

But what is often overlooked and is perhaps just as important as what was stated above is human burying. Many major cities are built literally on top of ruins of the cities that predate it. Today, we hear about this a lot on the news. With our more advanced technology we can detect important archaeological sites that might have a McDonald's built above it. This is not uncommon, as generally one layer is just added to another. This is common in many cities, even modern ones. Seattle, Washington, for instance, is raised around ten feet from what it used to be. So in areas where natural deposits haven't covered up a piece of history, it is likely that some city planner has.

Answer 4

Well...with the basic idea that even leaves alone will pile up and compost back into dirt...you have centuries of things turning back into dirt and slowly burying things. Same thing when some archaeologist pick around at open cliff-sides that contain many layers and different kinds of fossils depending on how deep they would have been buried.

Answer 5

Floods, wind erosion. People building on top of ruins. It happens.