Science: Diggers

The way for a nation to keep its memory bright, say archaeologists, is to write its records on durable material which will eventually be found. The Hittites of northeastern Asia Minor (2000-1200 B.C.) did the trick well. Their archives, written in cuneiform characters on baked clay bricks, were dug up in 1906. The records gave scholars the Hittite view of late Bronze Age politics. The Hittites, said the Hittites, were lords of all they surveyed.

As the scholars read more of the bricks, they found that the Hittite archives had not been thoroughly...