How far down would an archaeologist have to dig to find artifacts in Egypt, dating 3500 B.C.?
Actually, as an archaeologist who has actually dug in Egypt, I have to say that it isn’t that simple. While it would be very nice if a certain amount of dirt equaled a certain amount of time, geological processes of deposition just aren’t that simple. Sand, dirt, trash, whatever, accumulates at different rates depending on what kind of soil it is, what the weather and climate is like in an area, and how much human activity is going on in a given place. For example, my most recent work was on a structure dating to the early New Kingdom, around 1500 BC – and in some places the top of the structure was visible on the surface and in others we had to dig down about half a meter. Conversely, in work I’ve done in the United States, I’ve had to dig down 3 meters to reach artifacts that were no more than 300-500 years old.
