Deciphering history

Today, two interesting news articles about the difficulty of deciphering historical symbols, particularly those associated with death.

The first focuses on a mysterious heart-shaped symbol found on a coffin in a colonial-era African-American burial in Manhattan — it may or may not be a sankofa, a sigil printed on funereal clothing in Africa.

The second article describes rare bamboo-strip books found in a grave in Hubei province, in China:

Archaeologists will have to wait until excavation of...