FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

its content to me. I was speechless. Laying before my eyeswas a thousand-year-old, three-foot, clay statue of a woman.I had seen similar representations in museums and art galleriesselling reproductions. But, to behold this original andancient figure arising from the depths was extraordinary. Ibent over and carefully lifted it onto the kitchen table asloose earth from the burial tomb fell from the statue ontomy hands and through my fingers. At that moment I felt as ifI was holding something divine in my hands.Yolanda said there were twenty-seven figures thathad been unearthed. She explained that her father owneda small ranch near the village of Amado Nervo and hadheard a rumor of an ancient burial tomb in El Conde. At thatsite her father and brother dug down about six meters untilthey discovered a large slab of stone covering a chamberentrance. They then dug under this large stone and entereda burial chamber, where the bones of four ancients werefound. Lying among these bones were the twenty-seven statues,which now lay before my very eyes.Five days earlier I had visited the town museum, wherethe curator proudly displayed its artifacts. Yolanda’s figures72