Imagine a place where wind carves rock into canyons of light. Imagine a place where time is told in stratigraphy of stone. Imagine a place where sandstone arches dare ravens to fly through them.

In the harsh arid heat, one drinks deeply from this wellspring of wonder, especially in drought.

Terry Tempest Williams, Erosion

There must be something inherently unstable in the very way in which we communicate, some element of volatility which drives language into a state of inner restlessness, and gives it itchy feet. But what?

The key to the mystery of change is variation.

Language is not a monolithic rigid entity, but a flexible fuzzy system, with an enormous amount of synchronic variation (that is, variation at any given point in time). There is variation between the speech of people from different areas, of different ages, different sexes, different classes, different professions. The same person may even use different forms depending on the circumstances: ‘fink’ to mates in the pub, but ‘think’ to the boss at work.

It is through variation that changes in language proceed, for what really changes with time is the frequencies of competing forms.

We can cope with the chaos of change over the years (that is, with diachronic variation), simply because we can cope with the chaos of synchronic variation, the diversity at any one point in time.

The ability to deal with synchronic variation is an essential part of our knowledge of language. We can cope not only with ‘Thursday’ and ‘Fursday’, but also with ‘eether’ and ‘eyether’, ‘dreamed’ and ‘dreamt’, ‘am I not?’ and ‘aren’t I?’, and myriad other variations in sounds, meanings, and structures.

We draw meaning from context, from what we know about speakers and from what we infer about their intentions.

Guy Deutscher, Unfolding Of Language

We learn to read stories of the past in the scanty remains left behind by earlier humans.

Items scattered on the surface of a site can tell part of the story, and objects, ashes, and food remains that are buried can tell how old the site is. The relationship of artifacts to fire pits, water holes, or trails helps create a picture of how earlier humans lived.

Many objects used in daily living are not recognized as tools because they are made of natural materials with no visible signs to help identify them as artifacts. Deadfall traps collapse into heaps of stones and twigs like all the others nearby. No traces are left to tell of their former use.

Since hunters and gatherers covered a wide territory throughout the year, all the tools needed to survive in different environments will not be found in a single site.

Valley Of Fire Interpretive Sign