They were clearing the site when they found it.
It was around the size of a regular soup can. One end of the cylinder was flat and it was rounded at the other. There was a definite recess just below the dome, as though the end would unscrew, but it wouldn’t budge. One of the workmen suggested that it might be a piece of military ordnance. A less informed worker asked what that was. On being told that it may be some kind of unexploded bomb they stopped trying to open it. The entire site was cleared very quickly and the police called to report the find. Not long after this, the bomb squad arrived. They soon determined that it was not an explosives device, but took it away to be looked at more carefully.
The first thing they tried to do was open it. All attempts failed at first and it was only when they clamped the body and used a heavy duty adjustable wrench that the cap unscrewed. The container turned out to be hollow, save for a small, folded piece of what looked like paper. It was made of a thick material that was difficult to open. On it were printed several weird characters. After a number of people had looked at the inscription without recognising their origin, the whole thing was packed up and shipped to a government test laboratory for analysis.
They tried to keep it quiet, but somehow the press got hold of it. Nothing like a bit of mystery to sell newspapers. Theories were being offered left right and centre; everything from secret society doings from the middle-ages to a message planted by aliens.
Meanwhile, back in the government building, after several days of head-scratching, an expert panel, consisting of a group of the world’s most eminent hieroglyphologists gathered to decipher the strange symbols. The outcome of this was that these symbols were not something that had ever been seen before.
It was at this point, when it was decided that the whole thing was unfathomable and would have to remain a complete mystery, that the specialist that headed up the investigation was heard to mumble, “Wait a minute, I have an idea…”