Intellectual hooliganism topic: Middle Earth Archaeology

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Eruhen

Personally, I've always wondered this: what was behind that door Brego died trying to open?

That's Gandalf's "uncloaking room".

Really though, ME denizens didn't seem to have a lot of interest in digging in the ground or in old ruins for the sake of curiosity.

The Dwarves' interest in Moria was more a financial one, I think, connected to the mithril lode, though the tradition of the place was a draw too.

Men don't seem to care much at all. We don't see expeditions from Gondor to visit ruined Fornost or Amon Sûl, or even to wander through nearby Osgiliath, its former capital, without some sort of business driving them.

All in all, I see much more interest in the people from the past, as opposed to places. And that's mostly connected to family lineage, and whatnot.

As for the "modern" era finding Middle-earth ruins or artifacts, I think they'd probably look a lot like the things we find in reality. Tolkien said that scientific analyses of a "magical" item such as lembas would fail to reveal anything special about it, and I think the same would hold true for other things of Middle-earth.