archaeology

[Refugee]

I have taken a photo of a wheel barrow full of land fill detritus and would like to see what bit of archaeology related to vintage electronics can be spotted in it.
There is a lot to look over as it is an extreme skip pickers load.
The land fill bin has now swallowed all of it so only the photo remains.
It is my fault for taking on an allotment that has not been cultivated for a few years.

[Mike Watterson]

That's a decent tent peg I'd keep.

[Nick]

There's syringes in there, so there might just be some "sharps", i.e. needles...

I'd be very careful...

[Refugee]

There's syringes in there, so there might just be some "sharps", i.e. needles...

I'd be very careful...

There is also plenty of glass so I think the odd needle can be ignored.
Lets see if anyone can spot the electronic thing.
The problem is if you try to pick anything out it snags on the plastic bags or bits of string.
Sorting is difficult with the sharps such as glass ETC. The tent peg is gone now.
The target is to get all the detritus off and the land planted with veg in time for the growing season.

[Jac Janssen]

Electron gun assy?

Jac

[Diabolical Artificer]

About the only inference a future archaeologist would draw (if our civilization lasts that long) is our addiction to plastic. I think this a scam Simon, your hoping we'll all come over and tidy your allotment for you whilst looking for old radio's : ). The thing what your on about is the thing on the RHS, looks like like a torture device for dolls complete with electrode cap for the zapping of heads. Or is a miniature hair dryer for dolls, same thing really. It's either that or that miniturising device for that mad scientist and his pesky kids where they fought ants and centipedes every week on the Banana Splits.

You did ask....Andy.

[Nick]

There's syringes in there, so there might just be some "sharps", i.e. needles...

I'd be very careful...

There is also plenty of glass so I think the odd needle can be ignored.

The point (!!) about needles is what they may carry on them... I would treat any surgical/drugs related waste with extreme caution.

Glass is generally not too big an issue. A chunk of our garden used to have glasshouses on it in Victorian times (it was the kitchen gardens of a large country house, long gone) - the soil was full of shards.

Every year for several years we got literally bucket loads of glass from the garden. Now, 25 years on, most of it is gone...

[ppppenguin]

Many nasty bugs die quickly outside the body. HIV is a notably fragile virus. Some, such as tetanus, thrive under mucky conditions like that.

[Nick]

Many nasty bugs die quickly outside the body. HIV is a notably fragile virus. Some, such as tetanus, thrive under mucky conditions like that.

Hepatitis dies within a few days, as do many others. Tetanus can be bad news if you have no immunity (I had full-blown tetanus as a child - it wasn't a good experience).

Most folk have decent immunity to tetanus having had shots at some point in their lives, but you may need a booster. I had three shots a day for several weeks, so I'm apparently in a safe zone on that!

The thing about "sharps", specifically needles, is that they easily get through gardening gloves, something that glass rarely does.

[Doodlebug]

Send it to Tate Modern or better still. enter it for the Turner Prize.