But do they rival the Cyrus Cylinder?

In a remarkable find, the Cyrus Cylinder, a 2,500-year-old message impressed on clay, was recovered in 1879. This artifact, remnant of a lost world, tells of the Persian conquest of Babylon. A video conveys more of the interesting details and demonstrates how the clay was embossed with a message we can still interpret many many years later. It is a remarkable and fascinating glimpse into our transcendent (and violent) human history.

The Cyrus Cylinder, dating from 539 BC. Original image by kourosh e kabir. Uploaded by Antoine Simonin, published on 26 April 2012 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Like Cyrus of old, land surveyors also leave marks of their work. How cool is it that a surveyor’s mark might survive and be found by others many years later? What if a future civilization finds an embossed property corner 2,500 years from now?

California law requires licensed land surveyors to memorialize the lines or points of property that they locate. This is accomplished by recording a map of the survey drafted on a long lasting medium such as cloth or film (B&P Code Sec. 8763), placing durable physical objects called “monuments” at the survey location (B&P Code Sec. 8771), or both. Because survey monuments are permanently inscribed (B&P Code Sec. 8772) and relatively common, I wonder how future archaeologists might reflect on us upon finding a petrified property corner?

But on second thought, how long will a plastic cap survive? What about a little brass tag? Or a stainless steel washer? Unfortunately, some surveyors tend to leave as little trace of their passage as possible. Why operate in stealth mode? Why not leave tangible evidence? Of course it is helpful to our clients. And, more so generally to the public who relies on the existence of a retraceable (relocatable) parcel fabric. But it is also fun to think that something driven into the ground now could be found in a thousand or more years! With that in mind, let’s put a little more effort into leaving a “permanent” record. Perhaps that LS license number inscribed into a cap should be the informational floor. After all, the law specifically allows for inclusion of “other information on the tag which will assist in the tracing or location of the survey records which relate to the tagged monument”(B&P Code Sec. 8772). Why not add your name, date, the purpose, the client, the location or other info? It would not only be more interesting to a future finder, but more importantly it would be helpful!

So surveyors, step off the treadmill, be creative, leave your mark.