Archaeology in the 24th century

[Unimatrix Q]

It's extremely interesting how much the Federation knows about the ancient cultures of the galaxy (e.g. the Tkon, the ancient Bajorans and the Iconians, not to talk about the culture(s) on Tagus III 2 billion years ago for examples)

Wonder how Federation scientists could found out so much about these cultures (in some cases like the Tkon even deciphering and translating their written languages without native speakers or descendants apparently still being around), without needing to rely on the Guardian of Forever or other kinds of time travel.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Dead ancient cultures that supposedly persisted for millions of years developed technology that could store the information. All that's required is to access it, as opposed to gleaning minuscule amounts of information piecemeal from bone fragments and pottery shards. Federation computers are sufficiently advanced that if they don't know a code or language, they may be able to decipher it using probability programming and the like.

Every now and then, they might also run into a very old alien who knows more than they do, no time travel required (immortal(ish) or awoken from cryosleep/other frozen in time tech/phenomena) - despite the alien not being one of those people themselves.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Dead ancient cultures that supposedly persisted for millions of years developed technology that could store the information. All that's required is to access it, as opposed to gleaning minuscule amounts of information piecemeal from bone fragments and pottery shards. Federation computers are sufficiently advanced that if they don't know a code or language, they may be able to decipher it using probability programming and the like.

Every now and then, they might also run into a very old alien who knows more than they do, no time travel required (immortal(ish) or awoken from cryosleep/other frozen in time tech/phenomena) - despite the alien not being one of those people themselves.

Yes, AI and computer technology in Trek really is supposed to be amazing, but I doubt stochastic analyzing is enough to translate written languages, with absolutely no additional information about them being around and even figure out how terms are supposed to be pronounced.

IRL we still don't know for example what ancient egyptian actually sounded like, even though the hieroglyphs are deciphered for a long time now and we know the meaning of the words, their evolution and the relationship of that language to coptic.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Could skeleton jaws be analyzed for tooth placement and figure out which sounds they likely made more than others (ones that involve the tongue touching the top teeth, etc)? Sort of like trying to decipher a code on the presumptions that's it's written in English, 'e' is the most common letter, and a three letter word is probably 'the')

 

[Ithekro]

Not sure. Consider how many problem we humans have with our own existing languages and pronunciation of words from one dialect to another.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Strongly doubt it. Too many unknown variables to successfully extrapolate data relevant to determine anything about the language of the species, the individual belonged to, beside probably some superficial possibilities about what their voices may have sounded like.

 

[Tenacity]

the ancient Bajorans ... Wonder how Federation scientists could found out so much about these cultures

In the case of the Bajorans, just ask them.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Ask early spacefaring species to share their research. The universal translator will do the rest.

 

[Hawku]

Guessing there would have had to have been a few Tkon archaeological sites with Rosetta stones.

 

[matthunter]

With FTL, you could also just head out further than light (or radio signals) from a system could have gone and monitor that.

 

[ngc7293]

Imagine if the internet wasn't world wide, but half the galaxy wide.