Monday, September 17, 2007

The gravity of archaeology

Another conference paper on the horizon. I seem always to be writing these bloody things and never doing anything. Anyway, this time it's on how gravity structures the archaeological record in orbit and on earth, and I chose gravity because the pun in the title (see above) was too tempting, and I will get to say satisfying things like the argument of the perigee and fundamental epoch to a room full of archaeologists.

Chimerastone points out that gravity may not be the most appropriate quantity? variable? to use, and I think s/he's right. I'm now combining a dynamical systems approach to geomorphology (which has a lot to do with how artefacts/sites get to be where they are) and celestial mechanics (which is how space junk gets to be where it is), and using energy instead, a la Lagrange.

I'm not sure yet if it's going to be simply profound, or merely simple.