Would archaeologists find anything after this long time? Ruins? Any traces of human habitation?
What is left of Caprica after 150.000 years?
- Thread starter Unimatrix Q
- Start date
Some traces might still be there.
Structures comparable to Mount Rushmore, which I think is carved from pure granite stone, will last the longest in the ballpark of a few hundred thousand years depending on the grade of erosion it's exposed to.
And plastic products that are not biodegradable might even take millions of years before they completely decay.
Structures comparable to Mount Rushmore, which I think is carved from pure granite stone, will last the longest in the ballpark of a few hundred thousand years depending on the grade of erosion it's exposed to.
And plastic products that are not biodegradable might even take millions of years before they completely decay.
It's hard to tell. We can extrapolate based upon our building materials, but they may have used a few materials of which we're unfamiliar. Plus, wasn't their an effort (by the Cylons) to re-build some of Caprica? That may have continued indefinitely with some non-sentient machines.
I've always suspected that the Cylons eventually returned to the colonies, rebuilt them, and lived there. And perhaps evolved their own skinjobs (perhaps some of the originals were in on it as well). Hell, BSG-TOS could be the sequel! 
Yep. I've always said that the ending of the 2004 show actually helps Galactica 1980 make sense.I've always suspected that the Cylons eventually returned to the colonies, rebuilt them, and lived there. And perhaps evolved their own skinjobs (perhaps some of the originals were in on it as well). Hell, BSG-TOS could be the sequel!
There should still be significant pockets of human survivors on Caprica and the other eleven colonies of Kobol even after the nuclear attack and Cylon hunting parties. Once the Cylon's changed their strategy and abandoned the colonies, those other pockets of survivors could come out of hiding and eventually rebuild society, preferably somewhere where the radiation isn't as bad. By 150,000 years in the future they may have rebuilt and been destroyed multiple times, or they might be extremely advanced. The toaster Cylons may have returned and wound up fighting them, or developed a shared society and eventually became one hybrid biosynthetic species.
What could they have found exactly, if there were no humans alive anymore and all cylons left the planet after Season 3?
I *think* there'd be quite a wealth of archaeological evidence that survived, so long as any intervening civilisations didn't destroy it during their own development.
The reason I expect this is from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of real-world archaeology (OK, full disclosure: I'm a Time Team fan): skilled archaeologists can recognise the remains of decayed timber and even just where ground has been dug several thousand years ago. In fact archaeological evidence can even be found from the stone age, upwards of 12 thousand years ago. I admit that we're talking an order or two of magnitude longer, but equally their building materials would be vastly more durable.
dJE
The reason I expect this is from my (admittedly limited) knowledge of real-world archaeology (OK, full disclosure: I'm a Time Team fan): skilled archaeologists can recognise the remains of decayed timber and even just where ground has been dug several thousand years ago. In fact archaeological evidence can even be found from the stone age, upwards of 12 thousand years ago. I admit that we're talking an order or two of magnitude longer, but equally their building materials would be vastly more durable.
dJE
The remaining humans on the colony worlds could have banded together and made the trip to Kobal, lived there for over 100k years then 'rediscovered' the 12 colony planets and built a colonial civilization there leaving Kobol behind. Now you have the beginning of TOS-BSG!
Would anything they find still be recognizable or would they only find traces of artificial materials that would strongly hint at a advanced civilization that was there before?
This is pure guesswork on my part:
The chance of any particular object or structure surviving would depend entirely on extremely local atmospheric conditions (boggy ground, forests, deserts etc. would all preserve vastly different things).
I think they'd be able to find a relatively large amount of physical artefacts - I don't imagine an iPad would decay anytime soon but I equally doubt they'd be able to get it running afterwards.
A lot of tools, and even machines, are essentially just lumps of metal so I'd imagine they'd survive pretty well. They're also fairly form-follows-function, so I can imagine they'd be reasonably well understood.
I'd imagine that smaller domestic buildings would be better understood than skyscrapers, because their substructures (foundations) more closely follow their floor plans.
I would expect, though, that the "modern era" would be considered a second "dark age." The Dark Ages in Europe are called that because extremely little of the written record survive (or existed in the first place). This means that while plays, history books, architectural treatises, and even personal correspondence survive from the Greek or Roman periods and we therefore know a great deal about their societies. Few such things survive from the Saxon and Viking periods so their history was a "dark patch" compared to the "light" of the Roman and medieval periods. Because of our reliance on digital communications (and paper generally survives less well than parchment) I would expect that our society would mark a similar "dark patch" if the continuous transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next were broken.
dJE
Thank you for your great answer! I would assume that the geological and atmospherical conditions of the planet are almost exactly the same as on earth.
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