Fateful Potsherd

The Fateful Potsherd is a 12"x4" piece of clay pottery discovered in 0h. It played a key role in the Diet of Dalus of 422h, which decided, after a compelling argument by famed philosopher Tyrone the Simple, to use the year of the Potsherd's discovery as the baseline for synchronizing the twelve dating systems used at the time.

Discovery
The Fateful Potsherd was discovered by an anonymous platybear hunter in the Riggs mountain range of Rimmo in 0h. Local lore states that having chased his quarry from early morning to Lune's second rising, the hunter grew tired and stopped to rest under a semiflorous larch tree. The tree was, however, inhabited by a swarm of monkeybees, which chased and tormented the hunter until he sought shelter in a cave protected at its entrance by the beaverbush. The hunter lit a fire from the chewed twigs and found the Potsherd. Unable to comprehend its text but sure it was important, the hunter took it to the local Sharkir representative, Lou Snim, who sent it as a gift to the Royal Commissary.

Translation and Significance
While many scholars have tried to translate the unique cuneiform text of the Potsherd, called oxrit, none has done so successfully. Careful analysis by the Siphon Academy indicates that it is a small piece of a larger text recorded on the inside of a ceremonial container at least 14" tall and as much as 8" in diameter.

Current consensus states that such containers were used by the great mountain civilization Azmara circa 1500BH as part of a complex cleansing ritual for priestesses of the unisex god Duun. In 1285h, archaeologist Marta Klingbal found similar pottery shards in ruins just 35 kilometers northwest of the Potsherd Cave. These shards, too, had writing that appeared to be on the inside of the container rather than on the outside. Most scholarship agrees that the text records the many names and attributes of Duun, words so holy that they were not meant for human eyes but were rather etched into the surface of unfired pots by feel.

As of 1300h, some scholars, most of whom support a dating system centered on the life of Dandalus (see: h), began to take exception to the use of the Potsherd's discovery as the baseline date of modern history because its text has never been translated. These Potsherd Skeptics, led by noted archaeologist Jere Klingbal, cite two main objections: Since the rise of these objections, the Potsherd Believers, led by famous historian Holt Vanderson, have redoubled their efforts to crack the code of the Potsherd and released detailed models of the Potsherd for analysis at the elite Graham University in 1302h.
 * 1) The Potsherd may be nonsense text or not even text at all.
 * 2) The Potsherd may record something unworthy to be used as a baseline, such as a laundry list or a recipe for scarmks.