When money is allocated for federal construction—highways, mainly,
but also buildings, parking lots, etc.—a certain percentage is set aside
for archeological research. For reclaiming artifacts and studying what
is being destroyed. Archeology is not non-destructive testing (NDT).
Once you dig it up, all you have is a record of where it came from.
Plus an artifact. But the artifact may be a settlement pattern. Any kind of
cultural information that leaves a historical record. The federal government gives
the states this set-aside money and they administer how it’s spent. They think-up
the make-work. If you wanted to tear down the Old Capitol and build a new one
(or if you built the new one first, and no longer needed the old one), you might
sink potholes in the courtyard, plot and photograph the squares, identify and count
potsherds and eyeglass lenses, some bone and shell, and run chi-square (X2) on
the numbers. You might call this historic preservation.
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.
Demolition is preservation.
You might speak Newspeak.
If you want to get on permanent.