King Of The Carpark

The other afternoon British archaeologists finally confirmed that the ancient remains found under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester were those of King Richard III, who ruled England from 1483 to 1485 and was the last King to die in a battle on British soil. Because he was overthrown by Henry the VII he was buried without the fanfare you would normally expect and his remains had been missing ever since. As you can imagine, this was big news in England. However, it was nearly as big in America, where we continue to be fascinated by the Royal Family. I can only assume this infatuation is because we love drama and the Royal Family created a lot of it back in the day. Richard III is a prime example, as he is alleged to have promised to look out for his two young nephews who were in line for the throne following his brother's death and then had them hidden away and eventually killed so he could take power (no wonder Shakespeare made him a villain and no one was in a hurry to find his remains). Compared to that a few questionable ballots hardly seem worth getting mad about. Still, I think the main reason America was so interested in this story is because it could never happen here.

I'm not just saying a discovery like this couldn't happen in this country because of the royalty aspect. It could never happen here because we would never lose track of an important body like that. Sure, we occasionally find some old artifacts when we break ground on a housing project, but the person dug up never turns out to be a former President - we keep much better track of things like that (other than Jimmy Hoffa). Seriously, for such a comparatively young country, America sure does love its own history. We treat houses which are a hundred years old as though the fact they are still standing in a miracle whereas churches across Europe don't make the travel guide if they were built after 1700 AD. I can only assume this rabid need to preserve history comes from starting out later in the game, at a point in time where people finally began to understand the value of remembering where we came from. Countries such as England didn't start preserving artifacts until about a thousand years of their civilization had already come and gone without anyone thinking to keep a record. However, you could argue America goes a little too far the other way as a means of compensation. Any time a building which is over 50 years old falls into disrepair and someone threatens to knock it down some concerned citizen forms a committee and starts collecting signature to save it. I've said this before, but old does not automatically equal important.

Of course other reason America preserves every old building is because we can. England needs to build on top of its history because it isn't that large. Just to give things a little context, you can fit the country of England inside California nearly 4 times. Europeans can say whatever else they want about this land of ours, but there is no denying it's big. We have plenty of space which isn't being used and don't need to bulldoze history in the name of progress. Declaring that you have to tear a structure down and build something superfluous like another Starbucks on that same spot is a stupid argument which has more to do with ego than need. I can see the conservationist's point on that front, because why destroy something when that Starbucks could be placed anywhere? Still, at some point the saving of buildings can get out of hand. For example, there is a building (a shred, really) on Rt 109 which holds no value other than it is really old. Nothing important happened there, no one of significance ever set foot in it - it's just old. Hell, you can't even tour it, because there is nothing to see inside. For that we waste half an acre of real estate while England paves over its former monarch. That can only happen in a place where there is an abundance of land.

Now, I love history so don't confuse this point as me thinking we should being doing less to preserve it. I honestly believe that those who forget history are destined to repeat it, so keeping important landmarks open to the public is a good use of federal funds. I am also not saying that we should go out and start tearing down every old building just to see if there is something cooler hidden under them, because I don't like the odds. All I am saying is that this incident has proven is that not all history is worth saving and occasionally destroying one part of the past can lead to finding a great piece of it. I doubt there were many people protesting the loss of this parking lot in England, but imagine if there had been some committee who didn't want this parking lot to go because it was where some moderately-famous band once had an outdoor concert - Richard III would still be waiting to be discovered. Instead, England is getting one of its greatest mysteries solved. I'm pretty sure this is what every kid who goes to school to study archaeology dreams about. The good news for students in that country is that they still have plenty of mysteries to go and plenty of parking lots left to check.