"It used to be hard to find places to research, before the Internet." The historian from the mountains of Light sighed heavily.
Now it's easy, once you have picked up a search engine and a miracle, the assistant will immediately give you an answer, you will find a forum, you will receive advice, you will buy a device depending on the thickness of the wallet and go.
And in our time, it was necessary to get permission, a lot of permissions.
Permission to read materials from scientific foundations, permission to visit the archive, permission to access handwritten materials. Permission to use old maps, permission to use space and aerial images, not to mention permission to use a metal detector.
There were a lot of problems with him. The usual permit usually took time to get from 1 to 3 months. But with a metal detector, it was an ode ... 3-5-7 years old ... just write the rationale and get the refusal. Until one day they allowed ... the truth is only in places not connected with already open historical places.
In this regard, I was lucky that I compiled a map of historical artifacts, out of 470 of them, only 15 were included in the register of cultural heritage monuments and the rest were ignored.
Well, this is understandable, in order to prove their importance as monuments, it was necessary to conduct research, to obtain evidence of their existence in historical times.
But there is no money for these studies. Therefore, I was able to get permission.
Having access to information, it was necessary to shovel books, manuscripts, ancient road workers, old topographic maps, new topographic maps for that period of time, space and aerial images. Process them, find "marks" in them, these can be names of geographical places, streams, rivers, mountain gorges, mountain peaks or mountain passes, names of villages. Previously, they existed and now they are no longer in sight.
I often repeat myself, but this is in order to better understand myself ...
"yeah, yeah, Dara thought!"
So ... having gathered all the materials and tools in one place, I proceeded to research. I needed to organize all the data. To break them into eras, to trace trade routes, through which points they went, what these points were called. And here I will allow myself to move away a bit, temporarily from the main topic of our discussion.
"Damn it, scientists, they all speak scientific, formal, language ... they confuse, speak simpler, flashed through Dara's head ..."
And to be simpler ...
"as if he reads my thoughts thought Dara!"
... then, you need to pay attention to what language the geographical name was ... sometimes it had "Sogdian roots", sometimes "Aramaic", sometimes "Sanskrit", often Mongolian, occasionally Arabic, very rarely Chinese, more common Persian, Bactrian ...
Here you need to understand that if there were nearby the same names of geographical objects, in the same language, it was an occasion to think, and not "is it a label"?
Then translate the name of the object into a modern language. And here it was still necessary to take into account that the language has changed over the centuries and even millennia. And what used to be the "Sea" is now understood as the "River." So, you need to look for dictionaries of ancient words, ancient languages, consult with linguists, philologists, archaeologists, ethnographers ... this time. The last words they say are etymologists. They are experts in the history of language development.
Bored? Yes! Surely! But I, as a researcher, really liked the process itself, communication, I learned new things about my country, about neighboring countries, about how society developed ...
"But what about the result?" He asked, Dara.
And what is the result? He was! Very interesting!
"Interesting"? "And what about the money?"
Well ... there was money too ... but this is secondary, we are interested in the scientific result itself!
"ahhh, everything is clear with him ... one more nunchy geek" Dara thought with regret ... "damn it and even in these distant mountains, I happened to meet such a geek ..."
"Do not shadow the rubber, idiot ... let's say that I found and how"? !!!!!
So, having learned the "Label", I begin to search for data on it, what was mined nearby, what was grown, what was sold, and with whom, in what year.
And here the fun begins!
"Interesting, how is it ... for you a scientific geek it is interesting, but for ordinary people boring ..." you fool, I ask him about what money can be made for, but he tells me a story for 60 centuries! " !!!
Baka !!!!
The most interesting ... is the search for trade routes, routes, determining directions and then roads !!! It is on the roads that we can find old coins ... of different eras.
Sometimes they just lie in the sand and sometimes you need to dig 20-40 cm ... sometimes the signals come from 80 cm depth. Here, if the terrain allows, you can drive an excavator ... well, if not, dig it yourself ... if the soil is rocky .. then this is generally the work ...
Personally, I found the most coins on the roads ... from the Sun empire to the Tang empire, the Bossu empire, and of course, many coins from the first and second empires ... sometimes you can see Arab coins of the Abbasid dynasty era. Less commonly Macedonian coins.
Knives, sabers, lead bullets, cartridges, the remains of rifles and double-barreled guns. Last probably
The latter probably have a more modern history. It was them who were buried there by poachers who hunt wild boars and wolves at night ... and in the morning they blow electric fish into small ponds. When the guard fish rides, they bury their guns in the sand ... and maybe then they have no way to quickly find and dig them.
In those places, and this is the foothill plain, there are often floods of the river, and it fills the ravines and from there spreads through the desert ... therefore, the iron in those places quickly rusts.
Mountains of Light, they are located in the south of a large river, they are separated by large ravines, then a foothill plain, in the west there is a "fiery desert", in the east a "Waterless steppe", in the north there is a large river and a boundless steppe and in the south it limits it " gold-bearing river. "
The Light Mountains region itself ...
"Eeeee, good, here I'll drive a blizzard, let's say the methodology and what and where I've found, I'm damn not at a scientific congress" !!!! Yelled, Dara, having lost all patience and eastern respect for elders !!!!!!
Well, young man, no need to rush ...
... the technique is simple ... but also difficult ...
"Damn .... simple and difficult, is it an axymoron?" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!