Toynbee tiles

The material used for making the tiles was initially unknown, but evidence has emerged that they may be primarily made of layers of linoleum and asphalt crack-filling compound.

[8] In the United States, tiles have officially been sighted as far west as Kansas City, Missouri,[1] as far north as Boston, Massachusetts,[1] and as far south as Richmond, Virginia.

[19] A tile that used to be located in Santiago de Chile mentions a street address: 2624 S. 7th Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to letters written by the tiler, allegedly uncovered by Toynbee tile researchers in Philadelphia in 2006,[21][unreliable source?]

Someone who accepts—as I myself do, taking it on trust—the present-day scientific account of the Universe may find it impossible to believe that a living creature, once dead, can come to life again; but, if he did entertain this belief, he would be thinking more 'scientifically' if he thought in the Christian terms of a psychosomatic resurrection than if he thought in the shamanistic terms of a disembodied spirit.

[23][24] Playwright David Mamet has spoken of his belief that the tiles are an homage to one of his plays, and has described it as "the weirdest thing that ever happened".

In his 1983 work "4 A.M." (published in the collection Goldberg Street: Short Plays and Monologues in 1985), a radio host based on Larry King impatiently listens to a caller who contends that the movie 2001, based on the writings of Arnold Toynbee, speaks of the plan to reconstitute life on Jupiter.

The radio show host quickly points out the factual errors in the caller's assertion and the logical fallacies of his plan.

[25] Researchers for the 2011 documentary Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles claim to have uncovered several pieces of evidence that predate Mamet's play, including a 1980 call by the tiler to Larry King's radio show.

[26] They cite a 1983 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer which mentions a local man "contacting talk shows and newspapers to spread the message" about bringing the dead to life on Jupiter, as depicted in the film 2001.

[27] In 1983, a man identifying himself as a social worker named James Morasco contacted talk shows and newspapers with his theory of colonizing Jupiter with the dead inhabitants of Earth, claiming to have come across the idea while reading a book by historian Arnold Toynbee.

[8] In a conversation with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Morasco discussed how Toynbee's book contained a theory on bringing dead molecules back to life and that this was later depicted in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Comparing the tile to those in other cities, a local police detective felt that "clearly it was created by the same hand" and concluded that despite referring to a "movement", the creator was acting alone.

[19] In 2003, Worgul called the only James Morasco in the Philadelphia telephone book and was told by the man's wife that her husband had died in March that year, aged 88.

[citation needed] Toynbee-tile enthusiast Justin Duerr claims to have once found and examined a newly installed tile.

The tiles have enjoyed attention from American and European media outlets, including from The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, Spiegel Online, and NPR.