They purported to have recovered sound-frequency patterns from the micro-grooves of a beautiful Pompeiian pot, allegedly scribed unknowingly during the turning of it when they used a long stylus to etch grooves around the body of it. They even had a segment of sound recovered from those grooves. It was babel-esque, but you could make out chatter (eventhough it had mysteriously French rhythms to it) and someone laughing. I should have been instantly suspicious at the Frank-enstinian music of the voices, but I was lulled, gulled and beguiled by the idea of hearing a voice from ancient Pompeii. Just another Internet sucker, me. Sigh. My wife was enthralled and excited and we wondered how many other old shards had sound waves in them. Drying guano, or adobe, or other cementitious compounds, quivering to the rattle of Mongolian sabers, antique Enfields or Aztec shields clashing. And what it would have meant to linguistics! The mind reels. But, truth raises its ugly head, and all is rewound.

A