Wednesday, October 16, 2013

What of a Trash Heap!

                                                                            Attribution: Arthur Thomson
Image: The Java Man
Source: Wikimedia Commons (here)

It was a daunting task
To determine what it could have been
Sieving through layers upon layers
Of trash of no known origin

It was not foolproof but rather
A next best alternative
To plainly extend guesswork
Humanly possible to intensify
Based on evidences relative
To other similar specimens
To reach some form of conclusion

It could reveal the social fabric
Covering food ,clothing and implements
Which vowed to keep it a secret
Undisturbed for millions of years
Until archeologists arrived at the scene

The variety of artifacts could only have
Claims to prominence through conjecture
Of such scientific conclusions

Even the discovery of a single Java Man
Could still be mired in controversy
Whether it was an erect homo sapiens
Or just an ape or baboon of recent times

Being fastidious in collecting and collating
Of remnants of bones or skulls were by no
Means an accuracy of determining a fact
But rather of good methodology at best

Written for Peggy's hosting at Poetry Jam to write on It's All in the Trash and
Shared with ThomG's hosting at  3Word Wednesday with  words  
daunting, fastidious and intensify

18 comments:

  1. A different kind of trash, one that can say much about the past, even though some may get up their bum and some chant they'll hum.

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  2. it does take a certain methodology but i imagine creativity as well to determine just what it might be...maybe even by ruling out what it is not...

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  3. Excellent poetry on a most unusual subject,

    Yvonne.

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  4. Good take on the trash prompt! I like your view of what is learned from ancient trash heaps--and the reminder that it is all conjecture and assumption. I do sometimes wonder what further scientists will think about us from our trash heaps!

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  5. Nice take on the prompt, what is real? what is the truth? i like the way this opens up.

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  6. I think it takes a lot of creativity to make sense out of trash. And painstaking work. Definitely 'good methodology' is needed!

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  7. It is just about speculations, I guess. One can not be sure. Interesting write.
    -HA

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  8. Thoughtful and insightful. This is excellent.

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  9. isn't that so true. It takes a lot of work and effort and conjecture to figure it all out.

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  10. Two of the ambitions of my youth: anthropology and archaeology, probably because I read so many books by Agatha Christie, who travelled so much with her second husband, an archaeologist.
    A fabulous response to a "trash" prompt, Hank.
    K

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  11. intriguing - I like the use of detail.

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  12. No, good methodology is not a determinant of accuracy...

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  13. I say good methodology plus a good imagination ~ I wonder what our great great grandchildren will think of our trash ~

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  14. ah unique......I second Grace.....

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