The Mandela Effect

Chapter 66

In September of that year, Jon didn't have the normal preparations for the start of the semester. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he wasn't making lesson plans or getting a reading list together. He did have a list of new names and faces to learn, but he was thousands of miles from his classroom and likely hundreds of miles from the nearest college classroom.

Jon stepped out of the yurt and stretched. It was hardly roughing it, more 'glamping' than anything else. He had his own space, including a real bed with a mattress. The bathrooms were shared, and a dozen feet away, but he could deal with that. It wasn't his condo, but it was home for the next 3 months at least.

Most of the staff stayed in a small village about a ten minute drive away. The support staff was a further 25 min drive away in a larger town. But Jon wanted to get his hands dirty, and to him that meant being on site.

He didn't say that of course. Although he had a passing interest in archaeology, his focus wasn't on the things or getting them out of the ground. It was on what they meant. He, at least, thinks that was the more important question; especially when standing on a neolithic site of worship that was 10,000 years older than the pyramids.

But meaning wasn't as straight-forward as digging; it was also dependent on the digging. That meant that when some members of the team were on their knees and wrist-deep in dirt from the pre-classical area in the morning, he was just hanging out. But when they went home at the end of a long day, sometimes his day was just beginning.

Jon walked the short distance to the latrine trailer. After making a stop, he continues on a short walk in the same direction to the canteen. He grabbed a cup of coffee and says 'good morning' to everyone, as he always did. He generally didn't eat breakfast, but there was a baklava that he could not say no to. Jon was more travelled than the average person, but he felt like he never travelled. That was his justification for eating, drinking, and enjoying anything he could.

He munched baklava and sipped the coffee while he walked to the edge of the site. As he approached the edge, it was so much to take in. Before him was a 1000 foot diameter hole. Sure, it didn't sound like much, but inside was more than just empty space. The surface had been dug down over 50 feet. As they did, others had passed through surface remains from the first world war, deeper they hit the Roman remains, deeper still, they found the old kingdoms. But, when they hit 30 feet, they found something else; something bigger and older.

A logarithmic spiral made up of T-shaped standing rocks, each weighing tens of tons, circling down to a pair of 18 feet tall T's facing each other. The standing rocks were adorned with inscriptions and carvings of animals from all over the world. The rocks themselves were an astronomical calendar, observatory, and temple all wrapped into one. And so far, they had only uncovered five percent of the entire site. It was mind-blowing.

As Jon turned to step away from the edge, he kicked something hard. He looked down and saw something shiny next to his boots. Thinking he may have made a discovery, he leaned down and brushed away the dirt, he realized it wasn't ancient at all. It was a brass casing, a 7.62mm he thinks. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. It was a reminder that, in the far more recent past, this site was the frontline in a war, not on the frontlines of science. While he pondered the idea, he saw a wave from across the site. Jon returned the wave and walked around the edge of the dig to meet him.

"My friend!" the older man called, "As-salamu alaykum."

"Wa ʿalaykumu s-salam," Jon replied.

"Ahhh," the man smiled, "your Arabic is getting better, ferenji."

"Hey!" Jon joked, "I know what that means now."

"Term of endearment, I assure you my friend," the man says in heavily british-accented English.