Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • December 18, 2013 Archaeology while there is yet time Every once in awhile, I find something that is worth reading. Usually, it is a story about archeology. A few months ago, “Ultimate Tut” gave us a Tut for our times. When I was a kid, the young pharaoh was said to have died of malaria. A purported mosquito bite on his cheek was cited as evidence. When I was a young man, in the heyday of conspiracy theories and suspicion of power figures, Tut was said to have died of a skull fracture from behind, murdered, it was said, by agents of his own father- in-law who wanted to be pharaoh. Later, the poor kid was said to be so inbred -- Egyptian pharaohs often married their half-sisters to keep the bloodlines pure -- that one leg was drastically shorter than the other. Tut supposedly tripped over his own feet while walking with two canes and fractured his skull, an ignominious end if ever there was one. “Ultimate Tut” gave the kid back some posthumous self- respect. The theory now is that 19-year-old Tut, already the father of two stillborn children with his half-sister, was killed while personally leading his army into battle. Some believe he fell head-first out of his speeding chariot and was run over by both wheels, which explains the broken leg, the fractured skull, and the fact that his sternum was missing from the hastily embalmed mummy. Give the kid a break: He died with his face to the enemy and not due to imperfections due to incestuous marriages or the predation of mosquitoes. Neanderthals in the days before DNA research were said to have been wiped out by homo sapiens. William Golding, a prescient author in many ways, wrote a book in which, as I remember it, a Neanderthal child was captured and adopted by a family of Cro-Magnons and presumably lived to have kids with a Cro-Magnon spouse. DNA tests of modern youngsters proved Golding had something going for him, just as he did in “Lord of the Flies,” where the kids fling off their choir robes and everything goes to you-know-where. The DNA tests show that most Europeans and some Asians have a small quotient of Neanderthal ancestry, generally about one to four percent, with the heaviest concentrations in mountainous areas of Europe where there were limited social opportunities. Tut and the Neanderthals owe modern science some thanks. Think, however, how hapless the scientists will be to recapture the more immediate past: department stores, libraries, and other public buildings that are more inacces- sible than those lost cities Edgar Rice Burroughs used to write about. The library in my hometown was a beautiful building from the outside. George Washington rode past on his way from Fort Lee to Pennsylvania. Inside, the books were often archaic and some of the librarians did not like kids, which is not surprising considering some of the kids. I did not like some of them either, and I was a kid at the time. The hometown library was not a user-friendly place. My real library was Modell’s on Route 17, which had a book- shop near the entrance that featured paperback classics at a price even a teenager could afford. (They also had a liquor department where I could pass for 21 with a phony French accent, particularly when I made rude faces over the prices on the bottles and shook my head.) The paper- backs I bought at Modell’s for pocket money let me coast though literature courses in college because I knew what was in the books they wanted me to read. Sometimes they even ordered special books for me. Last time I looked, that particular Modell’s was no longer there and had not been for many years. As a summer job during college years, I worked at Alex- ander’s at the intersection of Route 4 and Route 17. I knew the place inside and out. The store closed years ago. Right after I got out of the Army, when I was working on my first (unproduced) screenplay, I worked in Bamberger’s on the far side of Route 4 from Alexander’s. I knew that place, too. I could show you the secret locations -- the rect- angular hidden nests made out of cardboard boxes where the stock boys took naps when they were supposed to be working, and the tunnels where the security guards loaded stuff into the trunks of their friends’ cars for a discount price until they got caught and fired. The mechanical baling machine that turned crushed cardboard boxes into blocks of iron-shod cardboard figured in my unproduced screenplay. The good bad guy in the screenplay used one like it to get the bad good guy out of circulation, as in permanently. People who read that screenplay were often very afraid of me. I assured them it was all entirely imaginary. They said that made it worse. The central figure was something like Rambo, except at the end you knew he was nuts. Shoot- ing people or disposing of them in balers was shown in all its negative implications and not as heroic. It was a very moral work of art if you managed to get through the first seven-eighths of it. If somebody with a social conscience dusts off that screenplay, they will not be able to shoot on location. Bamberger’s is also long gone. The previous libraries in many towns have also van- ished. I remember the “old” Ridgewood children’s room and the annex where they kept the foreign language children’s books that hardly anyone read. My kids did. Granted, they had no choice, but they could read French, German, Italian, and Spanish from the time they were in middle school. Had I ordered all the books they read from France, Germany, or Italy, I would still be digging myself out of the financial hole. There were books in that room by Hansi -- Jean-Jaques Waltz, a patriotic Alsatian children’s writer with a charm- ing style of art. Those books disappeared even before it somehow became patriotic to hate everything French. You could meet Tin-Tin before he became a movie star. Again, those books are gone. The northern European languages are becoming extinct in the school systems. The trouble with eradicating a somewhat modern build- ing is that it is so quickly replaced by another even more modern building, or by a parking lot, that there will be nothing left to go by some thousands of years hence when scientists wonder how we lived. In mid-career, David Macaulay, having toured the first U.S. Tut exhibit in the late 1970s, weighed in with “The Motel of the Mysteries” in which archaeologists 2,000 years from now excavate a sub- urban motel crushed in an environmental catastrophe and try to figure out what the artifacts were. They get almost everything wrong, sometimes with hilarious results. At least the fictional cartoon archaeologists had something to start from. In my dreams, I sometimes roam long but well-lit and reasonably clean corridors that can only be the department stories of yore, and the libraries before they were refurbished, substantially improved, but weeded sometimes injudiciously and changed forever. When the dreams end, where will archaeologists go to reconstruct history? Letters to the Editor Grateful for community’s response Dear Editor: On behalf of Ramsey Responds, we would like to thank everyone who participated in our annual Thanksgiving Day Drive, which was held this year on Nov. 22. Volunteers collected and distributed frozen turkeys, stuffing, gravy, canned vegetables, roasting pans, super- market gift cards, and other Thanksgiving related food and items to over 40 families in town. We would especially like to thank all the individuals and educational, charitable, and service organizations in town which made this possible, including the Knights of Columbus, the Junior Woman’s Club, the Hubbard School PTO, the Smith School faculty, the Ramsey High School National Honor Society, and Ramsey Shop Rite. We are so grateful to everyone who participated and who once again, through their contributions and caring, showed why Ramsey is such a great community. Cathy Calabria, Chairperson Ramsey Responds Ramsey Local businesses lauded Dear Editor: As a member of the Mahwah Beautification Commit- tee, I would like to thank three businesses for the recent upgrades to their commercial properties: Boiling Springs Savings Bank, 4 East Ramapo Avenue; Bagel Express, 75 Franklin Turnpike; and Knapp’s Landscaping, Inc., prop- erty owner of 92 North Ramapo Avenue, which is the busi- ness site of Mahwah Tree Service. Clearly, the owners have put time, funds, and original- ity into enhancing their locations. The beautification of Mahwah is the mission of our committee, and we want everyone to know that these businesses have contributed greatly to this undertaking. As residents, we appreciate their efforts to improve the appearance of our community. Everyone enjoys viewing a pleasing setting, and that is what they have created for all of us to experience. We are confident that the renewal of their properties will have a positive effect upon the sur- rounding areas. Thank you, Boiling Springs Savings Bank, Bagel Express, and Knapp’s Landscaping, Inc. for making a difference in our community! We wish you continued success and are proud to have your businesses in Mahwah. Maria LaSalvia Mahwah Beautification Committee Mahwah Museum president comments on film Dear Editor: As president of the Mahwah Museum I am saddened by the news I hear about a film that negatively depicts the people of the Ramapough community. This film, from news reports, seems to raise old stereotypes which we as a com- munity have long ago tried to put to rest. I stand together with Chief Perry, Mayor Laforet, and School Superinten- dent Schoen and oppose a film which, by all reports, mis- represents an important part of our a community. I would like to suggest that residents of Mahwah and those in the surrounding communities who want to learn more about the history of this community visit “Neigh- borhoods of Mahwah,” the current exhibit at the Mahwah Museum at 201 Franklin Turnpike. In this exhibit, you will find the story of the Stag Hill community based on sound historical research. The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On Feb. 6, the museum will present a lecture by Edward J. Lenik entitled “Ramapough Mountain Indians: People, Places, and Cultural Traditions.” Mr. Lenik has done exten- sive archaeological work in northern New Jersey and New York State in order to document the story of the Indians who have lived in this area. He is an acknowledged author- ity on this topic. This lecture and our exhibits are part of our ongoing efforts to document and tell the history of the township of Mahwah and all of its people. Charles Carreras, President Mahwah Museum Society It is the policy of the Villadom TIMES to have a signed copy of letters to the editor in our files. Please fax a signed copy to (201) 670-4745 or drop a signed copy in the mail to Villadom Times, P.O. Box 96, Midland Park, NJ 07432. Signed letters may also be dropped off at our office located at 333 Godwin Avenue in Midland Park.