The Archaeology of the Box People

p>The study of ancient cultures can be a fascinating but frustrating experience. Take for instance, the study of the cryptic Box People who lived thousands of years ago, right before the last great rising of the seas.

Here is a civilization that once was vast, perhaps ruling the whole world in its day, such a very long time ago. They might have had a highly advanced technology, and they may have been a great people with their laws, morals and character. But alas, as with so many obscure ancient people, their thoughts and writings are lost to us, – which is why the study of their culture is so frustrating. Perhaps it is because the medium they used to record their thoughts and their works was very short-lived, and perhaps was of an electrical or digital nature. Almost nothing may be found among the few ruins and trash heaps of their once great nation except their immortal boxes, which is why we call them the Box People.

What we do know of them is that they where totally materialistic, and that they used boxes for everything in their lives. They lived in large square boxes. They transported their cargoes in long moving lines of boxes across their landscapes. They traveled across their world in small boxes on wheels, designed to hold only their small families. Every item of productivity they created was neatly stored or contained in boxes. And when they died, they were even buried in boxes. From what little we can tell, they thrived and grew great by the manufacture, and the buying and selling of everything they consumed – in boxes.

Can you imagine? This is why we think their civilization is so fascinating, because some minor invention, like a simple box, could be utilized to such an extent that all that is known of them to this day is from the crumbling remains of their boxes.

We have made extensive studies of the contents of these eternal little boxes, and of the fantastically indestructible printings on their surfaces, but little progress has been made from these to understand who and what they were as a people, except that they had an elaborate pharmacology.

Their medicines and even their foods were stored in boxes in a vast and bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, and they even had round ones! The materials used in the creation of these little boxes is unknown to us, but these were mainly made out of an unknown carbon based, pliable substance, or out of a pulverized woody material – all of which seems fantastically durable.

Some of the boxes we have unearthed in their landfills had cryptic purposes. It is supposed, mainly because of the phosphered glass faces, which perhaps they were used for individual communication or entertainment, but such a thought is almost beyond belief in our collectivistic culture.

Oh, we do have a small number of bound codexes unearthed, which are in surprisingly good shape, but the language of these Box People is cryptic and remains enigmatic, since individual words in their language seemingly could each stand for a great variety of meanings – so their thoughts and inspirations remain rather closed to us.

But because of what does remain of their once great ancient civilization – these eternal boxes, one is left to wonder if this is what they intended for future generations to inherit of their wisdom and greatness. These Box People; the ultimate consumers, also known as the “Printed in US_,” or the “Proudly Made In Amer____.”