Fiction, right? lol. You have lots of creative license. To be
believeable, you have to endow your protagonist - the Archeobotanist
(let's call him/her, Archie) - with some knowledge that the
agricultural pathologists don't have. What could that be? Just
thinking out loud...

Archie knows about the circumstances (social culture, location,
environment) that surrounded the jar. Let's suppose that in making the
jar, the culture introduced some "catalyst" which over the centuries
caused a natural, ubiquitous, impotent disease on the grain to mutate
and become ravaging. Suppose after the firing of the jar - for
religious purposes - the maker coats the inside of the jar with - say,
a mixture of sheep's blood and gound iron pyrites. Archie knows all of
this. Over time the sulfur in the iron pyrites replaces some of the
nitrogen in the disease's DNA - causing a monster.

A few details to fill in...good luck!


Robert wrote:
I'm hoping you can help me out of a jam. I am a novelist based in New York.
I'm writing a mystery novel which has as a character an Archeobotanist. In
the prologue to the story he has uncovered an ancient jar of grain which,
when broken, awakens and unleashes a dormant corn disease that is quickly
spreading globally. Here's my problem, I want this character to help the
agricultural pathologists in the story to identify and cure the disease.
I'm wondering how to describe how the character might do this. Can you
please help me?

Thank you.


Robert P. Bennett
Writer/Lecturer
Author: "Blind Traveler Down A Dark River"
www.enablingwords.com