View Single Post
Old 03-02-2012, 06:43 AM   #4
Alfirin
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 435
Alfirin has been trapped in the Barrow!
This is a toughie. I can think of several times and places in ME where people might have good reasons to do archeological stuff, but at the same time I can see several objections, even under those circumstances. The first good reason someone could offer is that, since the general consecus with ME is that the "tech" diminshed with time (i.e. those things made in the past were invariably better and more wonderous than anything we can make in the present) it makes anything made in the past inherently valuable, and worth recovering if it is lost. It is true that a lot of the stuff that was always important was simply taken along by each group as they moved. However the tech skew in ME seem so hight that by the thrid age, a lot of stuff that would not be particualry valued in the first, and would be seen as day to day (and hence possibly, not worth taking along) would suddenly be considered valuable enough to search for. For example I can imagine someone digging up Eregion (either men from the top of the ground, or dwarves digging under from Moria (we don't know defintive that every tunner the dwarf dug, or might have dug in the years following the ring wars, would neccecarily be confined to the mountain itself) in the simple hope of finding a few of those glowing lamp jewels Feanor made (they seem to have been treated like pretty ordinary lanterns at the time, so some may have been left behind). Likewise, had Darkness returned in the Fourth age (say if The Return of the Shadow had actually occured) I can easily seeing Gondor,in desperation with it's lack of elves or wizards to assist it, sending men to excavate Cardolan's ruins in the hope of finding any of the Cardolan weapons that have unusualy effacacy against the agents of darkness (like the knives the hobbits were given). This might very well include also, with Bombadil's permission (not that they really would need it, or he would hesitate to give it) opening all of the Barrowdowns Barrows, since that is the one place where they would know weapons were around (and would have the added bonus of making sure the mounds stayed wight free, should whatever evil around become powerful enough to send spirits to re-occupy them. And if someone came to Gondor and told the kind that while diving in the Anduin (maybe for fish, or shellfish) he saw where the Osgiliath stone was sitting (i.e. it was still at the bottom of the Anduin itself, as opposed to having rolled along the bottom out to sea). I have little doubt attempts would be made to retrieve it, even if it meant something so massive as damming the Anduin temporarily. However all of these would also have the same objection. There is running through ME a concept that it is not just the tech that has dimished, it is the people as well. Unless the weavings of fate bring such ancient items to you inadvertantly, there might be the concept that it is wrong to go looking for them. You don't have them because you are no longer worthy of them.
Alfirin is offline   Reply With Quote