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Not every open question weighs the same. A single piece of evidence, found once, can retire dozens of them at once, and this atlas's own register makes it possible to see exactly which discoveries would be worth the most.

One Letter, One Word, One Vessel

Twenty six of this atlas's open questions ask where one letterform of the Theban alphabet actually comes from, one question per letter, because the earliest named source, a sixteenth century printer's claim that a monk called Honorius of Thebes invented the script, has already been checked and could not be traced any further back. A single manuscript witness carrying the letterforms from before that printing would resolve the shared root question behind all twenty six at once.

Something similar happens on a smaller scale in the Maya calendar, where four month names share one untranslated element, sihoom, so the meaning of that single word would settle all four questions together. Two residue analyses would each retire a cluster on their own: one of a Second Temple incense altar, which would settle what onycha, the third ingredient of the temple incense, actually was, and one of the vessels used at Eleusis, which would settle whether the drink handed to its initiates was psychoactive.

The Cheapest Fix, and the One That May Never Come

Not every gap needs a laboratory. The record of when Spain formally repealed its 1492 decree expelling Sephardic Jews is missing not because nobody has looked hard enough, but because nobody has yet cited the actual repealing instrument; this atlas's own note on the question says a citation to the right legal register, with its date, would close it in an afternoon. At the other end sits soma, the plant pressed for the ancient Vedic ritual drink: no securely dated Indo-Iranian ritual find has ever been tested for its residue, so the one discovery that would answer the question has not happened yet, and it may never.

Where To Read More

• ThebanMagical AlphabetsOne manuscript witness would close 26 questions, one per letter, at once
• OnychaGumsOne residue analysis of a Second Temple altar would settle its identity
• The Kykeon, the Drink of the InitiatesThe Way and the VirtuesOne residue analysis of Eleusinian vessels would settle three related questions
• The Alhambra DecreeRoyal EdictsThe cheapest fix on the page: one citation would close its repeal question in an afternoon
• SomaSacred Foods and DrinksNo securely dated find has ever been residue tested for it