Always ahead of the curve

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 meters, and shortly after, headlines in the California newspapers read: "California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than New Yorkers."

One week later, "The Aitkin Age," a local newspaper in Aitkin, Minnesota reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 meters in peat fields just north of Palisade, Ole Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing.  Ole therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Minnesota had already gone wireless."