Question for the floor

[andrewducker]

So, how long in the past would a previous civilisation of, say, Mesopotamian levels have had to be for their to be no remaining sign of it? i.e. for any bronze tools to corrode away to nothing, pottery to do likewise.

How long will it take until Stonehenge is worn down to nothing by the wind and rain?

Comments

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Well, we have physical remains from every civilisation we know of, and right back beyond civilisation to stone age tools preserved alongside human fossils. So there's a continuous spectrum with no well-defined upper limit. Stuff gets covered over by rubbish and soil in a very predictable way - ground levels change all the time - so even if I left a pot in the middle of a grassy field, compelely exposed, it'd get incorporated into the soil and could last indefinitely.

Having said which, if I left it near a cat, about 3 minutes.