As a busy professional and mother of a teen-ager, I find that multitasking is second nature to me. So it was that, as I toured ancient sites in Syria on a recent vacation, my mind was wrestling with the never-ceasing column topic dilemma. Some months are a done deal; at other times I near the mid-month mark with a feeling closely akin to terror as I desperately wait for an idea to fall into my lap.

In a ruined city called Ugarit, the idea fell.Ugarit is an interesting place. French archaeologists have been working on excavating it since 1929, and it's no simple task since some of the earliest buildings were constructed around 1450 B.C. But the ongoing work has revealed a prosperous port city (it's now inland of the Mediterranean Sea by about half a mile) that included royal palaces, temples and shrines along with libraries. And what was discovered in one of those libraries really intrigued me.

Ugarit is now recognized as the site where the first modern alphabet was invented. Unlike earlier hieroglyphic forms of writing, this was a cuneiform, or wedge-shaped, script in which shapes represented individual sounds rather than ideas or things. The gradual deciphering of this alphabet eventually led archaeologists to understand a great deal more about the culture of the city's inhabitants.

In addition to the alphabet, the city enjoyed trade with most of its Mediterranean neighbors, and influences from several ancient cultures can be found. Even after an earthquake and tidal wave destroyed much of the city, parts were rebuilt and occupied for centuries afterward.

But what really struck me about the place was the fact that it's been completely devoid of inhabitants for a long, long time. An area that was once so important historically and linguistically is now just an interesting stop on a tour of Syria's ancient ruins. As Ugarit lay in ruins gathering weeds, other civilizations came and went, other parts of the world strutted with importance and then went down.

And it made me wonder about our own time and our own industry. Nary a conference goes by without at least one speaker pointing out the number of gray heads in the room (often the speaker's included). It's the aging of the industry, the "Great Crew Change" or, as I like to call it, the "Petroleum Rapture." It's just around the corner, and it'll be the death of us all.

Enrollment figures in petroleum majors are dropping precipitously, the pundits cry, and the industry has such a lousy reputation for the way it treats its employees that no young people want to take a chance on it. Public schools are de-emphasizing their earth science curricula. Verily, we are doomed.

But while Westerners pluck at their garments and gnash their teeth, other countries are enjoying healthy enrollments in their petroleum-related colleges and are cranking out scary-smart graduates in all of the major disciplines. At the recent meeting of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) in Madrid, I saw plenty of younger faces from all over the world. Provincial notions of academic superiority can't be sustained when faced with the accomplishments of this globally representative group. Many managers charged with hiring local content in their regions consider that requirement a blessing rather than an onus.

Is the center shifting again? Perhaps. But whereas Ugarit eventually succumbed to "invaders" with superior technology, more established oil centers don't have to follow that route. Rather, I think companies entrenched in conventional Western ways of thinking can embrace the younger generation, regardless of origin, to everyone's benefit.

And when the inevitable crew change does come around, we'll have an admirably trained and diverse "crew" to take our places.

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