The article explains that these items can unexpectedly shed light on historical questions, giving as an example a letter from Marat that seemed to demonstrate he was not in an English prison at a time when most historians thought he was.<p>Items in archives are like fossils: remarkably rare, incredibly personal to the entity involved, but potentially of great import to the rest of us because of what we can learn from them.<p>I admit I&#x27;m a little tone-deaf and didn&#x27;t notice any hyperbolic language, but I would encourage you to give the article another chance.