data from mashkan shapir provide clues. stone: we found a very large palace structure, which was decorated with baked clay pieces, showing the city's own god -- nergal, the god of death. zimansky: there was a large temple area, in which we found pieces of sculpture -- lifesize and somewhat smaller -- of animals, human beings, all of which were probably part of the temple furniture. keach: they also found fish hooks, weights to hold down nets and fish spears -- all evidence there was once water here. written tablets like these describe mashkan shapir as a major port. but the city was 20 miles from the tigris river and 30 miles from the euphrates. how could a major inland port or any city, for that matter, survive in the desert so far from water ? stone begins a search for the source of water. for a perspective not possible from the ground, she orders a digital photograph of the area from the french spot satellite. with artificial color, she analyzes the image on the stony brook computers. stone: in this blow-up, you can see