Ken Kramer's "About San Diego State" (provided by KPBS)

"Are you ready?" Seth Mallios wanted to be sure his students had their pencils and notepads poised to document the most unusual archeological "dig" in campus history.

As chair of SDSU's Department of Anthropology, he's accustomed to unlayering the past, but this would be a first—to examine whatever was inside 40 long-forgotten lockers.

"They haven't been opened in about 30 years," he told me, "and as to what's in them, I have absolutely no idea."

Best guess is, the lockers were padlocked and then abandoned by students who, in the flurry of graduation, just walked away from them decades ago. They remained undisturbed, amid cobwebs and dust along a little-travelled corridor on the second floor of the Communications Building.

Now, bolt cutters were being used to snap off each of the rusty metal locks, while onlookers tried to guess what the contents might be. Textbooks? Newspapers? A slide rule? Maybe an old ham sandwich or two?

Read more: http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/360/news.a...