She found the bones on the second month of the dig, when they were deep down past what any other archaeologists had gone through before. When she straightened her back to take a break and look up at the sky, it was a small circle of blue high above her. Spiraling ramps of compacted earth led back up. She found the bones and felt a real stir of excitement. They were the first non-dinosaur, non-identifiable bones that they'd seen so far. As soon as she ran one finger along their edge and heard a faint whisper of bells, as soon as she lifted a tiny separate bone out of the ground and held it to the light and saw how it gleamed like polished pearl, she knew she'd found something special. She didn't, however, expect that the UFO fanciers would declare them alien bones and the religious fundies would declare them angel bones.

Inspiration: Listening to...MPR Science Friday, I think. Or the Scientific American podcast. They were talking about Darwin with an archaeologist.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Use darwin quote about crust of the earth. And it's important to leave the actual origins of the bones undeclared, I think. Play it both ways.