This is s story I learned from my archeology/anthropology professor while an undergrad.
He was part of dig in Turkey (well, maybe he just knew people who were there. I remeber his knowledge as coming from close to the source, but eight years is a long time to recall all the details.). He liked Turkey because there were villages burried beneath the ground 7 to 10 thousand years old. One would find all sorts of artifacts and try to construct a story from them that would show how the people so many thousands of years ago lived. It was especially good if the story was about the religious practices, since then you would get more funding because there might therefore be a temple with precious stones and metals to be found.
On the dig, they started finding these little clay triangles. They were all over the dig, though they tended to be concentrated in certain areas. They were obviously some sort of religious icon, but they could not find any that were decorated with any pattern. Maybe they had been painted. Nor could they find an eddifice near the highest concetration of these triangles. They were puzzled, but knew if they kept digging, they would eventually find the clue that bring it all together and allow them to construct their story.
This went on until, one day, a graduate student (I think this is why professors keep making more of us) noticed some of these clay triangles laying on the ground at the surface. At first he thought that someone had been careless and dropped their findings, but then he started to notice more of them. He walked around for a bit, finding more of them, until he came across the evidence that they had been hoping to find by digging.
The clay triangles were used to wipe one's bottom.
Later, Phil Philip Hammar, Graduate Student Internet: jackal_at_pha.jhu.edu Dept of Phys & Astro at Johns Hopkins Phone: (410)516-7866You've entered another dimension; a dimension of heat and flame. You've entered USENET.
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