Digging into the Past

As a memoir writer and memoir coach I often find myself digging into bygone times.  I also read on-line about archaeology, and it seems as if every few days a metal detectorist somewhere finds something startling, unearthing unexpected memorials.

What constantly astounds me is that a field that was otherwise simply an open space turns out, perhaps, to be the site of a vast Roman villa (like the one just uncovered on a Wiltshire farm), or perhaps it’s a village abandoned in antiquity with gold and silver items hastily buried by those who now lie dead amid the ruins.

More and more of life’s mysteries are uncovered in this way. And that’s fascinating. Yet it also reminds me that many empires have risen and fallen, some disappearing without much trace into the mud of every day.

We, in the privilege of the 21st Century, believe in progress. That’s good.  But history suggests that progress is never linear, that enormous amounts of care and effort and money frequently go to waste. Cities crumble; fortunes are lost.

I think the ancients understood this better than us. When gorgeous necklaces are buried with corpses, for example, these people cannot have been ignorant that the body would decay rapidly and cease to be attractive, leaving the jewelry nestled against the rotting flesh and bones. Possibly that was part of the joy of expensive ornamentation – the knowledge that today, on that beautiful living, lively girl, the necklace looked wonderful. At that moment it was secondary to her beauty.  Tomorrow the situation might be the exact opposite.

Cherish the moment.

Isn’t that what memoir is for, too?