Miami Herald
In the second half of the 1800s, a group of Catholic missionaries gathered a group of school-age boys in French Polynesia and taught them how to grow, harvest and process pearl shells. Eventually, three of the shells ended up buried in a hole beneath an iron ax. And that’s where they stayed for more than 100 years. That is, until a team of archaeologists began excavating the area and unearthed the “mysterious pearl shells,” according to a Feb. 1 news release from The University of Sydney.