=Xenoarcheological Sites= 
**Posted by:** Dr. Alozie-uwa Oboyomi, Xenoarcheologist <Info Msg Rep>
Xenoarcheology is perhaps one of the most over-hyped and under-appreciated ﬁelds of science that transhumanity studies. Anything coming from an extrasolar world is bound to be gazed upon with awe and wonder, even if it is the simplest of trinkets. Of course, some of this awe is warranted; less than ten years ago, we were alone in the universe. We all remember where we were when we ﬁrst heard that transhumanity had made contact with another sentient race, the Factors. We all remember where we were when we heard about the ﬁrst extrasolar ruins, proving that the Factors were not the only game in town, and that our solar system was but one of many inhabited and inhabitable places.
Since those days, the awe among xenoarchaeologists has faded, but the excitement is still there. While the general public may look upon our profession as a sort of secret fraternity, gifted with knowledge and insight that none may ever possess, we all know that’s not true. We are simply detectives, examining evidence and assembling facts to provide a narrative of who lived where and when. My particular focus within xenoarchaeology is bioxenoarchaeological artifacts (or as most system press terms them, relics).
A number of corporations, universities, and research groups sponsor archeological digs, often in conjunction with each other. The argonauts, Titanian Autonomous University, the University of Mars, and Oxford-Shackleton are some of the largest sponsors. Several [[anarchists|anarchist]] archeological collectives are sponsored by the [[Fissure Gate#Love%20and%20Rage|Love and Rage Collective]]. A few inner system oligarchs—notably Exotech’s Morgan Sterling—have also taken a personal interest in this area, investing their resources into operations pursued by some independent big-name xenoarcheologists. The majority of xenoarcheology missions originate from the Pandora or Fissure Gates, as the fees charged by the corps controlling the other gates are too prohibitive. [[Gatekeeper Corporation|Gatekeeper Corp]] sponsors and even funds a number of archeological missions with argonaut support.
==Planets of the Dead== 
The Fermi Paradox continues to haunt transhumanity. With so many star systems, so many planets, and so many opportunities for intelligent life to develop, the question remains: where are the sentient aliens? By simple math alone, we should have encountered far more alien civilizations by now.
In truth, we have found those civilizations, or at least some of them—and so far, with the exception of the Factors, they are all dead. To date, we have found evidence of at least eight extraterrestrial civilizations that once existed, but that now seem to be extinct. The majority of these seem to have reached a level of technological advancement equal to or greater than transhumanity. At least one of these dead cultures, the Iktomi, seem to have used the Pandora gates before us. Every one found so far has been dead for centuries.
In most cases, surprising little evidence of these once-thriving species still exists. Their achievements have been erased by the passage of time, broken down by the elements and destructive forces of nature, buried under the slowly shifting landscapes of forgotten homeworlds. Some of their ruins have been so thoroughly leveled that it would seem to indicate that some force intentionally wiped them out, doing as thorough a job as possible in eradicating all traces of their existence. It is possible that similar but even more thoroughly wiped civilization remnants might exist on exoplanets we currently occupy, without us being the wiser.
These planets of the dead offer us many challenges and possibilities. We study them to determine what these alien creatures were like, how they evolved, how they thought and acted, in order to better understand our own evolution and the possibilities of ﬁnding more xenolife elsewhere. We investigate the causes of their downfall, to determine if there is some challenge or threat that transhumanity may yet have to face, that could destroy us just as thoroughly. We research their lives, interests, and arts, to understand the essence and meaning of intelligent life.
==The Process== 
Digging up relics from long-dead civilizations can be really, really dangerous. There’s a romantic view of us in the press back home that has us swanning around in cargo pants and t-shirts, recklessly tromping through ruins, picking up whatever looks pretty or interesting. The reality is far less glamorous. Unless a site is clearly benign, a lot of the time we have to use digger pods to go into a site and trigger any safeguards that may have been left behind. We don’t get a lot of booby-traps or deliberate acts of alien sabotage, but it happens, and we need to play it safe.
Once we make sure a ruin is clear and the work area is stable and safe, we go in. If possible, we make the area breathable to facilitate work, erecting domes to maintain a consistent environment. This also helps protect the dig site from any environmental factors that might disrupt the operation or damage unearthed structures and items. Xenoarchaeology isn’t a one-day thing, so while we’re waiting for the pod operators to do their job we set up camp a good distance away (any given dig site of note is a long-term gig, so we tend to make ourselves at home). When we get the all-clear from our crew chief or dig leader, we head in. We found out early on that some relics are sensitive to electromagnetic ﬁelds at close ranges, so we tend to use a lot of low-tech or shielded equipment. For the most part, we use the same tools archaeologists have used for hundreds of years: shovels and brushes.
I should clarify that the use of digger pods is by necessity rather than by choice. If we had our way, we’d go in with synthmorphs all the way, simply because they’re cheaper and easier to maintain; it’s simpler to replace a severed wiring bundle than to repair a broken leg, even in our technologically-enlightened time. As I noted, however, many ruins are electromagnetically sensitive, which for the most part eliminates fully synthetic morphs as a good medium for initial site exploration. When we were ﬁrst digging out Sunrise, we used modified pleasure pods of all things. We found that their limber nature worked well when exploring a site for the ﬁrst time, that their mostly biological makeup wouldn’t trigger electromagnetically sensitive locations, and the fact that we could run them remotely using their puppet sock. We simply jacked in and drove them around like cars. Over time, we’ve tweaked the design a bit, mostly to be more unobtrusive, and many teams in the ﬁeld are using actual digger pods for the ﬁrst time with great success.
Once we’ve cleared a site and isolated items that we feel are worth investigating a bit more, we ﬁrst give them a scan to see if they’re sensitive to particular frequencies of sound, light, and electromagnetic radiation that we may use in everyday situations. If it appears to be an electronic device, we then hook it up to an adaptive interface to see if we can discern its nature and perhaps map out any circuit paths. Items deemed electromagnetically-sensitive are usually studied on site. Other relics are carefully removed from the dig site, packaged in inert containers, and shipped back through the gate so they can be better studied on the other end.
In reality, even identifying an alien device as a relic is sometimes a challenge. We simply do not understand the creators of these artifacts enough to fully understand the initial purpose of many relics we uncover. Some of the things we dig up may for all we know be worthless trinkets, the alien equivalent of kitsch and kipple. Others may be smaller components of larger items, whose purpose we are unlikely to ever determine without ﬁnding other parts and piecing them together. Still others may be highly-advanced devices that to our inexpert eyes seem as innocuous as paperweights or doorstops. So our approach is to research and catalog everything we ﬁnd, no matter the mystery it presents. It is our hope that through detailed study and further exploration, our picture of the alien species and their culture becomes clearer. Usually this starts by piecing together a picture of their anatomy based on how they designed and used items, and then building onward from there to guess at what purposes these devices may have had or what the characteristics of their society was.
==Titan Sites== 
Though most evidence of TITAN activity is treated as a hostile contact and either avoided, quarantined, or actively destroyed, a few sites have been set aside for research. Those conducting the research have made the argument that it is important—possibly even crucial to transhumanity’s future survival—to have some idea of what the TITANs have been up to since they left the solar system and where they may have gone. Each of these sites is heavily guarded and restricted, often with a military unit nearby on standby, and usually investigated remotely using shielded synthmorphs.
There are also some less-ethical xenoarcheologists that treat sites that are clearly TITAN in origin as simply another dig site to be explored and exploited. While relics that come out of these TITAN sites are clearly illegal in most political entities, I have it on good authority that there is a burgeoning trade for them on the black market, especially since some of the factions holding the Pandora gates are not particularly rigorous with their artifact screening procedures on the home side of the gate, either through ignorance or by design

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