Before the University of Michigan began its excavation at Kom Aushim, the site of ancient Karanis, the sebkheen (diggers for fertilizer) had plundered the mound looking for black dirt for their cotton crops. The heart of the mound had been dug to bedrock and resembled an extinct volcano. Yet these diggers had unearthed the glass and papyri that led the university expedition to believe that the site would prove rich in archaeological material. In the ensuing years, archaeologists laid bare the plan of this Graeco-Roman town to the minutest detail in house construction and decoration, and peopled the houses and temples, the streets and passageways, by revealing the objects used long ago in daily life