[DManA]

I remember years and years ago, maybe in Readers Digest, an article written from the point of view of far future archeologist “explaining” what common 20th century objects meant. For instance a parking meeter was a shrine to a god that people made sacrifices of coins to.

It was pretty funny.

[Polynikes]

Perhaps it was “Motel of the Mysteries”
http://www.amazon.com/Motel-Mysteries-David-Macaulay/dp/0395284252

[katana]

I remember that article or one like it and besides being funny it was pretty bloody accurate. “Religious Site”, “Ceremonial Object”, and “Shrine Center” are the automatic fall back positions for archaeologists trying to describe something or a place the purpose of which they have no clue about. It is how they are trained to perceive and report what they find and God help any undergrad who strays from the accepted dogma. Same thing applies in almost every branch of university study and is why, in my opinion, many of the most successful innovators never attended or quickly dropped out of college.

[Grimmy]

I remember a comic that did much the same with his cartoons.

He had an archaeologist from the future explaining the rotary telephone as a device for communicating with the gods.

To use the device, a worshiper dialed in the number of the god he wished to appease, then banged the receiver against the body of the phone over his head to make a jingling noise with the bell.

[Oatka]

I remember years and years ago, maybe in Readers Digest, an article written from the point of view of far future archeologist “explaining” what common 20th century objects meant. For instance a parking meeter was a shrine to a god that people made sacrifices of coins to.

It might have been the same article, but I remember when they mentioned how horrified the archeologists would be when they excavated a church basement and found all the cooking equipment used for bazaars, figuring that some kind of cannibal sacrifice was performed there.