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Previous Questions and Answers
Desiree Johnston asks:
Q Dear Julian. Hello My name is Desiree Johnston. I'm 24 years old and come from Northern Tasmania in Australia. I've been SO FACINATED! by archeology since i was 12 or 13 years old. Now my question is relation to meet the ancestors. Do you know if any of the facial reconstructors who work on bring the ancestors back to life have ever had an experience where they have gotten half way or nearly all the way of finishing their work and say oh my gosh he or she looks like a close friend or relative. I mean for some reason i believe in human reincarnation but do you know if it's ever been scientificly proven. Yours sincerely Desiree Johnston.
Julian Replies:
A I have never heard of any of my facial reconstructor friends having this experience although we did do one site early on in 'Ancestors' ('bones in the barnyard') where the face that we reconstructed looked very like one of the people in the village of Bleadon where the burial had been found. I don't think that re-incarnation has ever been proved..... but glad you like archaeology.
Ali McNab asks:
Q I am fascinated by archaeology, but it seems to be fixated with death and religion. Every site seems to be interpreted in terms of ritual, and those that grab all the attention involve bodies. Is this habit, laziness, or ghoulishness or is there a more prosaic explanation. It just seems that if half as much effort was expended on discovering how people lived as on how they died, we would have a much more complete picture of our forebears. Or am I being cynical?
Julian Replies:
A I suppose that it does seem as if archaeology is fixated with death and ritual but there is a practical reason for this. It’s mainly because the things that people built for funerary or ritual purposes are generally bigger and survive better – think of Stonehenge, the Pyramids, all the prehistoric burial mounds. The places where people lived are much more difficult to find and believe me, I have spent a lot of time looking for the places where the builders of Stonehenge lived. Now it looks as if they have been found at Durrington walls but this is a very rare discovery.
