A UC Santa Cruz professor unearthed the oldest alphabet yet

>> I try to keep that in mind when I’m excavating today; scholars of the future are counting on us to leave the best documentation we can.

The answer is to stop digging. It is understood that imaging techniques will eventually be good enough that artifacts may soon be studdied without disturbing the surrounding soil, without destroying all that evidence that future generations might be able to use. Of course that means disrupting the dig-to-museum/auction/television pipeline that funds the field.

> It is understood that imaging techniques will eventually be good enough that artifacts may soon be studdied without disturbing the surrounding soil

Who understands that? It's very interesting. Is there somewhere in archaeology where it's discussed? Is there a paper or article? It might be interesting for HN's front page.

It is happening today. Chambers inside Egypt's great pyramid were detected in 2016 using muon imaging. It was a slow process but radically less damaging than the alternatives such as drilling test holes. More commonly, ground penetrating radar is regularly used to avoid digging test or exploratory trenches across sites. As resolution increases, fewer and fewer trenches need be dug. Scans are often used years prior to digging as a non-invasive way to confirm the existance of structures in aid of grant proposals. At some point, the scans will be the entire dig.

I've heard of that application, but will it detect faint writing, which experts weren't intially sure was writing, on a 4 cm long piece of rock? I don't that's happening any time soon.