It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well.

One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. The burning of the library of Alexandria is such an incredible sadness

> It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building

There's a very good reason for that: archaeological techniques improve all the time. The idea here is to leave something for future archaeologists.

By not excavating the whole city they leave work for future archaeologists. :)

> It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well.

In some places in Italy, Greece, Malta, probably others I don't know, people always joke that you shouldn't try to ever do any renovations lest you end up finding something and lose your house. Some places you're almost guaranteed to find stuff if you just dig once or twice.

Excavation with our soon-to-be-outdated techniques is needless destruction.

We should only excavate what is about to be destroyed.

( And we shouldn't destroy stuff just to put up yet another shitty modern building. )

> One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers.

You might be interested in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a historical novel about such a lost work.