Modern Atlanta sits atop a thick loam of history, but sometimes you can't tell without a bit of digging. Historical markers are a blur glimpsed from the windows of cars. The terrain has been razed and raised until it bears no relation to the hills and valleys over which armies fought. There are but four antebellum houses still in the city, and one of them was carted across town some 40 years ago. The symbol of Atlanta is the Phoenix, rising from its own ashes, but perhaps it ought to be the ostrich, burying its head against recognition of its own past.