Telling

"An Indian village on the Missouri River in 1750 must have been a lively place. Barking dogs running between large earth-covered houses; children playing on the roofs; women making pots and chatting by the doorways; a party of men returning from a hunting expedition laden with bison meat—all contribute to a picture of confusion, sound, and motion. The same village in 1965 is a silent cluster of dim green rings of grass on the brown prairie, the only sound that of the wind, the only motion and life that of a tumbledweed rolling across the low mounds and depressions, and of a hawk circling high in the sky. The people are gone, and the only things which attest to their former presence are fragments of the objects which they made and used, buried in the collapsed remains of their dwellings. If you had gone into this village after all the people had left, but before any deterioration had begun, understanding what had taken place there would be difficult enough. [...] Add to the porblem the factor of disintegration over a period of two centuries, and the magnitude of the archaeologist's task becomes painfully clear."—James Deetz Invitation to Arhaeology 1967 (page 8)

"Kimmerle said she's not certain how long the process [of exhuming bodies buried at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida]—which includes forensic examination, identification and DNA testing in some cases — will take. "Our goal is to identify every individual," she said. "That's probably not possible, but we're going to try. Those not identified will be reinterred at the location." Florida CFO Jeff Atwater said he hopes the Legislature, which already approved spending $190,000 on USF's project, will continue to fund it until all the remains are reunited with families. "This is a historic day," said Robert Straley, 66, of Clearwater. "We finally found an administration with the guts to go back in time to help the boys who couldn't help themselves."—Ben Montgomery Tampa Bay Times "Cabinet agrees to let USF researchers exhume bodies at Dozier" 6 August 2013 (link)

"[Your housecleaner knows more about you] than you think. I see the piles of bills marked “past due” and know you’re having money problems. I find drugs and condom wrappers in kids’ bedrooms. And I can tell who’s unfaithful because the cheaters always start hiding laundry."—Jennifer Steil Reader's Digest "13+ Things Your Housecleaner Won’t Tell You" (slide 25)