After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, British scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 200 years. They came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 150 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the Brits, in the weeks that followed a French archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet. A story was subsequently published in Le Figaro: "French archaeologists, finding traces of copper wire 250 years old, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network - 50 years earlier than the British."
One week later, the La Stampa, an Italian Newspaper in Turin, Italy, reported: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in his backyard, Giuseppe Gioconni, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Gioconni has concluded that 250 years ago, Italy had already gone wireless."