How much of the world's ancient relics are still undiscovered?

Question

Is it true that only a small number of ancient artifacts are known to us and that there are still many more waiting to be found? How could an archeologist get involved in the search for these artifacts and not get stuck doing research, writing papers and generally not working in sites?

Answer 1

interesting question dude!

sorry but don`t know nothing about it..

Answer 2

You could become a priest and look for them in Rome. . .

Answer 3

Archaeologists don't look for relics, they look for information.  The whole point is to understand how people lived in the past and not to find treasure.  Become a pirate if that's what you are looking for.

Answer 4

Of course that's true, thank god.  I work as a contract archaeologist in the US, and we always find great stuff, even in farmer's fields that have been picked over for hundreds of years.  There are plenty of sites and single artifacts left to find even here, where we've done a heck of a lot of building.  Remember that guy in Utah that had gorgeous sites from a little-known native group on his land?  He just came out with those a few years ago.

The research and writing papers is just part of the job.  Even out in the field, we generate a ton of paperwork.  It's vital to the job: if you don't record everything, it's lost as the site is destroyed by digging it up.  There are plenty of field archaeologists in the US.  As I said, I work in the private sector, like some 90% of US archaeologists, and I never write papers and I'm almost always in the field.  I'm also on the lowest rung and am basically a digging monkey, but hey.  Check into cultural resources management and websites like shovelbums.org or archaeologyfieldwork.com if you're interested in the work.  You need a BA and field school for preference, but that's it.

Answer 5

To answer the first question you have to know two things.

1. How many ancient relics we have in total.

2. How many ancient relics exist that we don't know about

Since we can't know about what we don't know about the question is illogical.

You second question is a repeat of the headline question.

The answer to your third questions is, basically, dig. You don't want to do research or work at a site? Just dig and hope you get lucky or try exploring uncharted territory, caves, ect.