kengr

Thermoluminescence.

(Why can I remember that but not the name of the former long-time coworker I encountered at Kroger's earlier in the week?)

I don't know cuneiform - or anyone who knows it - either. Sorry.

The closest story idea to this which I can recall is something in Analog a few decades ago. Archeologists studying materials at a long-defunct Pueblo site find ceramic plates with strange, unglazed lines in the glazing. Someone recognizes those as circuit diagrams. Fill the unglazed tracks with the appropriate conductors and semiconductors... This wasn't time travel, which yours seems to be. I won't say it was aliens, but... ;-)