Do you think we will discover things from the past that will make us live long? A-Keya Davis (11)
Hi A-Keya. I’m not sure exactly what you mean. I don’t think we’ll discover anything that will improve our medicine, although it is interesting to see how illness and injury were treated in the past. A famous excavation in York discovered the skeleton of a monk wearing a knee brace, probably to help with the pain of a ligament injury like the one suffered by several famous footballers today. I have found healed fractures (broken bones) in skeletons, and evidence for arthritis too.
Some archaeologists do study ancient human DNA to find out about illnesses in the past and how they have changed. It may be possible to learn more about human DNA in a way that helps us live longer through this, but that’s way beyond the knowledge of this archaeologist!
More questions answered by Ian Milsted
I live near Pontefract in Yorkshire. Recently near where I live some builders making houses found a grave with Roman soldiers in. My grandad was talking to one of the builders and he said they still had their armour on. Did this happen often? Charlotte Wilson (9)
This does sound unusual as armour was normally re-used or recycled, although there are a few examples of this practice in Roman Britain. It sounds like a remarkable […]
What do you do when you find artefacts?! Do you put them in a museum, sell them in an auction, or just keep the items? Rukiye Shahla Babaoglu (9)
Hi Rukiye, The artefacts we find are carefully cleaned and catalogued, before being sent to specialists to study. These specialists can include people who are experts in particular […]
My 10yr old daughter wants to be an archaeologist and is mad keen on history. Can you recommend any books for someone her age? Oliver Marshall
There are loads of good books about archaeology for young people. A good general starting point is The Usborne Introduction to Archaeology by Abigail Wheatley It has loads […]