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Eastern New Mexico University, in Portales,
is home of the Paleo Indian Institute, first of its kind devoted
exclusively to studying the Palen Indians "who hunted
extinct varieties of elephant, horse, bison and camel, more than
10,000 years ago in the New World" (so says the sign).
Their work is highly respected in its field; so while in a
Portales meeting, I visited their building and displays.
 After
an hour or two amidst hones, pottery and stone implements of
that bygone civilization — and after reading all the claims of
"finds" and the identification processes — one
begins to look more closely for bits of evidence which may lie
at our feet. I had walked not more than fifty feet from the
museum when I noticed a peculiar eggish object in the grass of
the campus. It was about the size of a "dollar"
marble, mottled grey in color, but coated with a flaky white
substance that made me think it had been buried in a caliche
bed. It was a bit light for stone, and had a feel more of
leather than of fossil. Hmmm!
Thinking
it may have been dropped from the kit of some archeologist, I
returned to the institute and asked Dr.______ to identify it.
Magnifying glasses came out, lights went
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on, and various departmental workers gathered
about to solve the mystery. One said it was a nut — I'm not
sure if he referred to the object or its finder. Another said,
no, it was a long-preserved egg, perhaps of a snake or turtle.
"It is fossilized." "Absolutely not."
"It is organic!" "It's a nut!"
Someone
suggested taking it to Dr. _______, and after a reasonable wait
the verdict from the other office was, "It is fossil."
The first Dr. objected. "That is wrong — go tell them I
said they were wrong." The office crew politely declined
that assignment. Someone suggested the object be taken to
Zoology, but that was immediately squelched. "Anthropology
can handle this!" So, the search went on. Finally the
object was taken to a lab. It was rubbed, pricked, and tested
with acetone. Then the investigator raked it with his teeth,
tasted, and laughed aloud. "It is candy," he said.
"Someone got tired of a jawbreaker, and threw it into the
grass." Moral? Well, the object is final authority, be it
fossil or word of God. The student's guess, or wish, cuts little
ice in determining truth.
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