Just back from the Australian Space Science Conference in Canberra. After a fabulous talk by Graziella Caprarelli (UTS) about the state of planetary sciences in Australia, I have decided that I will no longer be a space archaeologist but a planetary archaeologist. This is nicely in keeping with my current research on unifying terrestrial, maritime and celestial archaeology. Planetary science is about the solar system, and is different from earth science and astronomy. So it works on all levels. (I'm imagining a T-shirt with a picture of an astronaut holding a trowel).
I suppose the term "Planetologist" along the lines of Egyptologist and Assyriologist might be a little too presumptuous?
ReplyDeleteI think not - but perhaps confusing. We assume that an Egyptologist studies Egyptian culture rather than Egyptian insects. A terrologist might refer to just Earth rather than any old planet, but what term could we use to indicate human culture on earth? An interesting question.
ReplyDelete