exhume vs pierce

exhume

verb
  • To dig out of the ground; to take out of a place of burial; to disinter. 

  • To uncover; to bring to light. 

  • The archeologist exhumed artifacts from the ground with a shovel. 

pierce

verb
  • To puncture; to break through. 

  • To penetrate; to affect deeply. 

  • To get to the heart or crux of (a matter). 

  • To create a hole in the skin for the purpose of inserting jewelry. 

  • to break or interrupt abruptly 

noun
  • A pierced earring. 

How often have the words exhume and pierce occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )