ABSTRACT
Alex and the author had archaeology-person vacation-analyzing beads in their hotel room and photographing them. All the author's intentions to not excavate the parades of 2013 went to hell. The author was ready to participate in Carnival as a tourist instead of a scientist. That was, until the throwing started. The first parade was Babylon, one of the three parades now considered by Mardi Gras historian Arthur Hardy, along with Hermes and Proteus, to be the last remaining old line krewes. Alex and the author would be seeing two of the three old line krewes. Babylon was celebrating their 74th year. They had originally formed as the Jester Krewe and later came to parade as Babylon. Beads overall were still the most abundant throw in Mardi Gras, but blinkie medallions, plush krewe-themed throws, lighted Frisbees, and a number of other new krewe-themed throws were more in evidence than ever before.
