David Macaulay's "Motel Of The Mysteries" presents us with a humorous account of an archaeological excavation of a twentieth Century motel, in which everything is meticulously excavated, recorded ... and misinterpreted. The "vast funerary" complex unearthed by Howard Carson contains wonders such as the "Great Altar" (Television), a statue of the deity WATT (bedside lamp) and the Internal Component Enclosure (or Ice box). Conveniently, it also includes some nice depictions of ruins from this lost culture, such as a buried St. Louis Gateway Arch.

Several images in the book parody/ reference famous archaeological photographs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

(See Humour and the Elusiveness of the Past.)