Earthen Berms and the Terrain of the Laptop

The night is growing late, and those with no curfews can’t sleep.

(By “curfews” I mean “reasons to get up early.”)

Finished reading the New Yorker’s piece this week by David Grann, in which he recounts retracing the journey of British Col. Percy Fawcett. In1925, Fawcett set out into the Amazon to search for the rumored ancient “City of Z.” He, his son Jack, and Jack’s friend Raleigh were never heard from again.

Neither were the 100 or so people who set out in various expeditions to locate the lost explorers.

It’s all a fascinating saga, worth the read. But what I wanted to remark upon here was the bit about an archaeologist Grann met during his journey in Brazil. The archaeologist takes the reporter on a tour of a settlement he has unearthed from 1200 A.D. Three circular indentations in the earth indicate a series of moats inscribed by the city’s dwellers. Streets were perpendicular marvels. Shards of pottery indicate great human settlements and culture. Etc., etc.

What really amazes me, however, is the actual tedium that produced such a lavish written experience. I took a course in college on archaeology, thinking, of course, that it would be fucking fascinating. Instead, I found myself as bored with the techniques of the science as I did with the drone of the boring, boring professor’s voice. (Yes, maybe the two were linked.) You know, the mapping of small bumps in the land, which may or may not indicate some kind of previous human existence there. But this story made me realize that while I will probably never have the patience to do such monotonous and careful work, I should thank some Andean god or goddess that there are people on the planet who are willing to imagine so grandly—be grateful that there are people who can see a lump in the ground and conjure up an entire city…

It’s the very stuff that makes me feel confident again that I have chosen to write. It helps me remember that there is possibly value in borrowing the dreams of others and passing them along.