The Lost and Found Collection Page 9

  “Terrific. I’ll look forward to it.”

  Two

  The calendar

  The flight from Johannesburg up to Mpumalanga, South Africa’s smallest province, went without incident. On the way up, Jake learned the area was a mining district. The largest gold mine in South Africa was only a few kilometers from the site.

  “It’s called the Sheba mine. That name isn’t coincidental. You may remember the story of King Solomon and the queen of Sheba.” Stefan said.

  Nodding, Jake quoted from the Book of Kings.

  “And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.

  And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

  And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hid from the king, which he told her not.”

  “I guess you do remember the story. It’s a prominent legend in Jewish folklore, as well as Muslim and Christian mythology. ”

  “I was quoting from the Bible, but I always thought the ancient kingdom of Sheba was farther north of here, closer to Egypt, and stretching across the gulf into the Middle East.”

  “It’s a legend, so it may never have existed. If it did exist, no one really knows for certain where the exact location was, or how large an area it supposedly encompassed.”

  “I don’t believe it’s just a myth. So many references to people and places in the Bible have been proven true through archeology. This may be one of them. Are you familiar with the discovery of an ancient gold mine in Ethiopia?”

  “Yes, and it isn’t that far north of here. Finding an ancient gold mine doesn’t prove anything, except that humans have been mining for gold on this continent for a very long time. All of southern Africa is dotted with old mines like that.”

  “I understand. The time of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba corresponds to the time the Bantu people migrated to this area, some three thousand years ago. Gold has been considered precious for far longer than that. I’ve found gold artefacts in Central America which may be about ten thousand years old. I understand cave art and artifacts have been found here in South Africa of about the same age, even older. As I said, the story of the Queen of Sheba is about three thousand years old. Some empires or dynasties last for centuries, even thousands of years. There’s no telling how far back the kingdom of Sheba existed.”

  “Hmmph, if there ever was such a place.”

  “I think there was. There are too many ancient references for it to have been entirely mythological. Are you aware the nation of Ethiopia traces its existence all the way back to the son of the queen of Sheba?”

  “Yes, I’ve heard that silly story. According to legend he was the bastard son of Solomon, right?”

  “Yes, and the legend also goes on to say he carried the Ark Of The Covenant from Jerusalem back to Ethiopia, where it remains to this day.”

  “I believe that’s been pretty thouroughly debunked. The thing probably never existed. Didn’t some guy claim he found the Ark of the Covenant in a cave in Jerusalem back in the nineteen eighties? Poppycock, I say. Where is it now?”

  Jake shrugged.

  “I have no idea. There’s so much we don’t know. I’m more interested in what we’ll find next.”

  “Yes, as am I. If you look down there, you’ll see the ruins of dozens of old stone kraals. There are hundreds just like them in this area. In South Africa they’re as common as trees in a forest.”

  The helicopter approached the edge of the Drakensberg Mountains. Shortly later, it banked to the left, and hovered above the more or less flat top of a mesa.

  “There it is, Jake. The so called ‘Adam’s Calendar’. We’ll circle around it a couple of times, before we set down.”

  From the air the roughly circular orientation was obvious, though bearing no similarity to Stonehenge. Two pillars were clearly visible standing in the centre of the circle. The circle itself was on the edge of an escarpment that dropped away from the plateau. The pilot spiraled down and landed about a hundred metres from the site.

  “The view from here is spectacular.” Jake said.

  Stefan grinned.

  “Yes, isn’t it? Most people are too interested in the stones to notice the view. You’re looking at the lowveld. Over yonder is the Barberton Valley. We’re up on the edge of the highveld, behind us are the mountains, and just north of here is Kruger National Park.”

  “This is as pretty as the high country back home in Arizona. The landscape is even similar, with the mountains, mesas and escarpments.”

  “It’s one of the reasons this site is becoming a popular tourist attraction. The mountains and Kruger National Park draw a lot of people to the region.”

  Jake wandered around the edge of the site and then approached the two stones at the centre of the circle.

  “This is interesting. Have you ever seen a kraal that looked like this?”

  “No, most of them are easier to identify. The structures are obviuos. This looks like a bunch of loosely organized individual stones. There are no walls.”

  “Right, very large, individual stones placed here. They appear to be aligned in a specific way. Look at these two. The taller may have been deliberately shaped, or chosen for its existing shape. Can you think of a reason two tall stones like this would be standing in the centre of a kraal?”

  “Not that I’m aware of, but that’s not my line of work.”

  “Do you see the way the shadow of the taller stone falls on the lower, wider stone? I don’t think that’s an accident.”

  “What are you suggesting? Do you think it’s a sun dial?”

  “It could be, but it tracks the seasons, not the hours.”

  “So, is it a calendar, then?”

  “That appears to be a plausible description. The shadow probably moves across from one equinox to the next, then back again.”

  “Huh. That’s surprising.”

  “Why?”

  “They say the guy behind all the hoopla about this place is some kind of weirdo.”

  “Really, in what way?”

  “He believes in time travel, and he says humans were planted here on earth, at this very spot, by extraterrestrial aliens.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  No, he writes books about it.”

  “As I understand it, that gentleman was among the first to recognise there was something here. I’m convinced he was right about one thing. This is not just another cattle kraal. Let’s continue to examine the evidence in the hopes of establishing some facts, and leave speculation out of it.”

  “I suppose that’s fair enough, but I suspect that fellow is just a huckster trying to make money any way he can.”

  “Perhaps, but as I said, let’s examine the evidence. Another thing I find interesting is the number of stones present on this plateau. You’re right, they’re loosely organized, but they are only here on this edge. They’ve mostly fallen; still, you can see they were probably arranged in a circle. It’s possible they were all standing at some point, but even if they weren’t, why are they here?”

  “Perhaps it occurred naturally.”

  “…Only on this spot, at the very edge of the plateau? The nearest natural outcrop is some distance away. These stones are incredibly heavy. How many are there?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “It looks like nearly a dozen are standing, and many more lie scattered about here along the edge of the escarpment. Let’s take a closer look at some of the others.”

  The first stone they examined showed faded tool marks creating a groove on each end. Several other stones had similar marks. One looked almost like the head and torso of a man.

  “Well, Jake, what do you think? Is there anything to this?”

  “Yes, the size of the standing stones qualifies them to be though
t of as megaliths. There’s no question the structure could have been built by man, but the site is so ancient and weathered, it’s hard to tell what we’re looking at.”

  “What do you think it is? Is there some simple explanation of why these stones are here?”

  “I can’t speculate. All I know is they’ve been brought here and some of them have been shaped. I’m an anthropologist. Anthropology incorporates four primary disciplines or areas of study. We’re interested in the cultural, linguistic, archeological and biological clues to present and past human development. Where we are now and how we came to be here, are questions whose answers pre-date recorded history.

  The only thing certain at this point is that these stones appear to have been carried here, arranged and shaped, for some unknown reason. The weathered condition of the site and the erosion of the markings suggest they are ancient. How ancient they are or what their purpose was is yet to be determined. That’s the archeological perspective.

  At this point, there is no known linguistic connection or evidence of written language or recognizable symbol.

  Biologically speaking, the naturally occurring vegetation around the stones has not been disturbed. There are some trees growing at the edge of the site. The lichens on the surface of the stone are very well established, meaning they’ve been on the stone for a long time. All that tells me is the stones weren’t put here recently.

  Culturally, we see the stones were carried here fom another location and they’ve been placed in a pattern. We know people don’t go to that kind trouble without a reason. There are megaliths like this all over the world. We know what some of them are. Most of them remain a mystery. Tell me, Stefan, are the native kraals often decorated or given some sort of embellishment, maybe to ward off spirits or something?”

  “It depends. The typical brush kraals aren’t decorated, but some huts are painted, inside and out. I’ve never seen any rock carving in a kraal, so, I don’t know. Again, that’s not my line.”

  “That’s fair enough. More research is warranted. Think about it. On the way here we flew over hundreds of ancient rock structures. All of those stones had to be collected and carried to build up those walls. You said brush was the most common building material. Why were all those ancient kralls built of stone? There’s more here than immediately meets the eye. Are you familiar with the Nazca lines in Peru?”

  “I’ve heard of them. Aren’t they some sort of rock art that can only be seen from the air?”

  “They are. Those geoglyphs cover an area of at least two hundred and fifty square miles. Many of them are hundreds of feet in length. From the ground they don’t look like much of anything. From the air, they’re spectacular. It begs the question—why? Why did ancient people build huge, fantastic representations of birds and animals that they couldn’t even see themselves?”

  “Who knows? What do the Nazca lines in Peru have to do with this site?”

  “I’m not sure there’s any connection. At the same time, you told me there are tens of thousands of ancent stone structures scattered all over this region? Many of them can only be seen from the air. There are lines of stone connecting them. It’s just an interesting piece of the puzzle.”

  The prevailing wisdom is that all those ruins are just old kraals. As you said, they’re common as dirt here. Every village has or had them. Most are built of brush, wood, or cactus. Very few are stone. So, I’m wondering, why would there be tens of thousands of ancient stone kraals, and why would there be lines connecting them?”

  “Wouldn’t the number of kraals be supported by the fact that multiple generations of people built them over several centuries?” Stefan asked.

  “Possibly, but wouldn’t it make more sense to maintain existing kraals than having to go to the trouble of building new ones, especially thousands of them.”

  “There is no way to understand the minds of primitive natives. Maybe they had some kind of ritual that required young men to build stone kraals as part of a coming of age ceremony.”

  Jake looked Stefan and said, “Everything we see in modern times has beginnings in the ancient past. Tradition and cultural heritage are powerful identifiers of any people group. Among the tribal people still living here, do such ceremonies exist today?”

  “Yes. Well, not the building of kraals. But, as an anthropologist, you must be aware that every year hundreds of boys and young women are mutilated or die as a result of circumcision rituals.”

  “While it’s horrible, I’m not sure it’s relevant to the number of kraals. It also doesn’t address the issue of why there are lines connecting the circles.”

  “They’re probably just primitive fence rows.”

  “Are you suggesting the local herdsmen instituted livestock fencing thousands of years ago?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. It had to start somewhere. Isn’t it possible those stone kraals are only a couple of hundred years old?”

  Nodding, Jake said, “Yes, it’s possible. We don’t know when they were built. Another possibility is the rocks were removed from fields and placed in parralel lines that happened to connect the kraals for no particular reason beyond clearing the fields. Perhaps they were used to designate ownership of individual tracts of land.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “No, I don’t have any idea. I’m trying to avoid speculation. That’s why I need to do further research.”

  “Well, Jake, we’re happy to have you look into it, but from an official standpoint, you’re on your own. I see nothing here that warrants spending government money on further research. We call South Africa the ‘cradle of humanity’, because this may be the place where the first humans evolved. Think about it. If that’s true, civilization started right here and spread out over the rest of the world. Here in the Republic of South Africa there are so many ruins, fossils, caves, you name it. The entire country is an archeological site. We just don’t have enough money to research a bunch of old rocks.”

  “Until in-depth archeological research can be done, this calendar site must be protected. Too many archeological sites have been ruined or even destroyed by construction of roads or industry.”

  “Don’t worry. It is protected. This site is within the boundaries of a bird sanctuary.”

  On the return flight, Jake pointed out the side of the helicopter.

  “Look over there. That hill has dozens of circular structures and what looks like acres of terraces. That suggests highly developed agriculture. Can we get closer?”

  As the pilot circled over the hill, Jake shook his head.

  “This is amazing, Stefan. It looks like this entire area was some sort of highly developed farming community. Not a city like what we think of today, more like what we would call suburban sprawl. Thousands of people built these structures, but they’re not crowded together. It’s as though they were either large family dwellings or small villages, all connected. They stretch out for as far as I can see. They must’ve used millions of stones in the construction. There’s something very significant here. I see it. I just don’t know what it is I’m seeing. When we get back to Pretoria I’ll make some arrangements. I need to do further research.”

  Stefan shrugged.

  “I’m afraid you’ll have to do it on your own time and expense. Officially, there’s little I can do. You said it yourself. These old kraals are scattered everywhere. We don’t have the time or the resources to waste on ancient rock enclosures.”

  “I understand what you’re saying, Stefan, but there’s evidence of something more. I have to look into it.”

  “Well then, good luck and good hunting. Let us know if you learn anything significant.”

  Three

  Sacrifices must be made

  Ubara-tutu, the Nephalim King of Atlantis, sat upon his throne, listening to the reports of his satraps.

  “There is another sickness killing the slaves, my King.”

  “Another? Will this never end?”

  When the man gave no answer, the
king sighed.

  “Which slaves? None of the household servants are suffering.”

  “It is the children of the cave dwellers. The miners of gold, Sire.”

  “Why? What is happening to them?

  “Their skin breaks out. They run fever. They lose control of their bowels. Then they die.”

  “Is it only the children?”

  “No, Sire, adults die as well.”

  “Send for Ombulu, the high priest. He must find a cure.”

  When the priest appeared before the king, in his entire ceremonial splendor, he bowed.

  “You sent for me, Sire?”

  “There is another new disease among the mining slaves. This time it kills children. It’s some sort of pox. What causes this?”

  Ombulu closed his eyes. After a moment he said, “I must consult the spirits.”

  “Well do it, and be fast about it. We’ve lost over a thousand of those barbaric, brainless slaves, just this year, to one disease or another.”

  “It will be as you say, oh King. I will seek guidance from the gods.”

  The next day, when the high priest returned, he was immediately brought before the king.

  “Well, Ombulu, what is this thing that’s killing the hideous children of the slaves?”

  “It is another manifestation of Njoribe’s curse, Sire. The Anunnaki are angry. The women of the slaves have displeased Nanna. Only the death of innocents can please her. We must sacrifice one of our female infants for every twenty slave children who die. These girls must be fed to the fires of Ba’al.”

  “More sacrifices? Did I not say we have lost too many slaves? Now you would have us kill off our own daughters. Have you lost your mind?”

  “It is the will of Nanna, my King. We can get more slaves. You can have more daughters.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to deal with the slave merchants, or our wives. Will these sacrifices stop the disease?”