Prelude
(Once upon a time, in a not so faraway place…)
Hamster Dunnigan, amateur paleo-archeologist, was on an illegal dig in the mountains of southeastern Washington State. He was looking for graves to loot. His area of interest was on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, federal lands. He was a short man and kept himself lean and strong. His long auburn hair was always pulled back in a braided ponytail. At first glance, even though he was twenty-nine years old, he looked like a small Native American kid. His Indian name was Tiphkalit, translated means small furry rodent who is quick. Hamster was the English translation he preferred. It was better than rat. He was poking around scree covered hillsides with several nearby glacial melt water streams flowing to the Columbia River. He accessed the area using his dented fourteen-foot Valco aluminum boat and twenty-year-old, ten horse Mercury outboard motor to travel eight miles upriver. The river system was part of the dendritic patterned watershed that contributed to massive flood runoff into the Columbia River Gorge.
The floods known as the Missoula Floods carved the region over hundreds of thousands of years of erosion. There were numerous flooding events in this area over the eons of time. The events were due largely to the rupture of ice dams built up on tributaries to river basins during periods of climate cooling and then warming. The region was also directly on the path of the first inland hominoid migration to this part of the world associated with the Kelp Highway Theory. Because the Bering Sea land bridge was exposed during much of the early Pleistocene era, evolving creatures of all species migrated back and forth over the land bridge in search of sustenance. It has been theorized that early hominoids stuck close to the coastline as they traveled using wooden boats now long rotten and decayed back into the earth. Small curious groups of hominoids ventured inland when the opportunities arose. In our evolving world of evolution, hominoids searched and competed for sources of protein and carbohydrates with everyone and everything else, exploring all corners of the world. They explored more than was previously imagined.
Dunnigan’s was walking on a low ridge recently exposed by a receding ice pack and occasional volcanic activity in the form of tremors. The scree covered slopes had been under the ice pack and the temperatures stayed well below zero for eons. Tremors over the last five thousand years caused calving of great glacial ice pack, exposing Pleistocene era strata and soils untouched by erosion or any other environmental factors. The Pacific Northwest of North America had been rattled by basalt spewing volcanos and earthquakes for the last five hundred million years. The area was still an active volcanic region with unique geologic formations. Large and small gas vents created deep networks of cave systems. Many of the caverns were habitable and scattered randomly throughout the steep valleys. There had been a few archeological finds in the region since the St. Helens eruption thirty-five years earlier. Most of the items found were stone age tools pushed to the edges of the glacial front face over eons of time. The finds were attributed to Native American origins for lack of any true means to identify them. Without greater detailed study and organic matter for accurate DNA and genetic analysis, it was always a guess. Dunnigan had numerous buyers for authentic artifacts and good pieces always brought high prices.
In several locations Dunnigan surveyed, he identified crude stronghold positions used during ancient battles. He found stone monuments and built-up alcoves on the hillsides. They were arranged in front of caves in specific defensive patterns and arrays. Numerous whole and broken arrow points and larger spear tip type artifacts littered the fixed stations indicating many attacks or perhaps one large battle. He did not understand what the defensive positions were for but guessed they were used to protect territory. He collected all the arrow points he found. Even those brought good money.
Behind one crude defensive structure, protecting a small alcove, he spotted a slightly exposed flat obsidian panel. Upon closer inspection he could tell the unusual obsidian panel had been chiseled and knapped around the exposed edges. Someone had taken the time to shape the stone into some type of defensive door like structure. As he started to move a series of smaller basalt boulders around so he could gain better access, he immediately saw that the three foot by four-foot oval panel was blocking a chamber, which looked like it had been purposefully sealed in place. He was mesmerized by what looked like images in the form of figures and glyphs etched into the black glassy surface. As his flashlight swept across the stone panel the refracted light brought the images to life. The animals moved in a brilliantly animated choreographed dance running over etched mountains. The images of people, although stick figures also moved in wonderfully uniformed action type patterns, jumping up and down and waving their arms saying, “Hey look at me!” It was magical.
There was an unusual type of cement lining the edges of the translucent pane. The unique patterns on the obsidian and its size were extraordinary. It was almost like a dirty window, opaque with a dark gray hue. When he finally managed to delicately break the seal, air whooshed in. Eventually, after several hours of gently chipping with a small hammer and chisel, he was able to pry the cover stone out. He rotated the cover, inspecting it; the opposite side held more detailed etchings of scenes with animals and backgrounds of mountains and more stick hominoid type figures.
Setting the panel aside, Dunnigan found a chamber approximately four foot wide, five foot high and twenty feet deep, which had been carved into the pure basalt outcrop. Given his small stature, he could easily stand up in the chamber. As his flashlight swept across the chamber, he was in awe. The contents had been preserved for eons, more than five hundred thousand years. It was a shamans ceremonial dwelling.
The articles he inventoried included elegant animal hide clothing and carved bone and antler artwork. There were a series of yew wood bows with sinew strings still intact, and several quivers of delicate arrows. On a ledge just below his feet was an unusually carved arrow launcher, elegant eight-foot-long spears with long fluted points and a series of finely knapped obsidian knives and scraping tools. There was a strand of sacred sweetgrass braids mixed with wrapped sage bundles, decorative jewelry of long thin conical black and white seashells strung together and setting in a place on its own. With it was a small one-inch diameter rough shaped gold disk with a hole in the center.
At the back of the cave, neatly rolled up along the wall, was the unmistakable cape of an enormous tiger. It appeared to be animated and decorated with pictures and unusual glyphs. They were etched into the hide with images like the ones on the chamber’s outer door. The hide was in perfect condition. Hundreds and hundreds of images adorned specific sections and covered the still supple pelt. When he moved his flashlight across the images, they moved like an old stop gap motion picture. Scattered on the floor were dozens and dozens of flint and obsidian shards and tools for knapping, pieces with ultra-fine tips used to create the message etched in the hide. In another location hollowed out in the wall, he found finely knapped obsidian projectile tips, some thirteen to fourteen inches long, the longest he had ever seen, wrapped in still soft and supple rabbit skins, and tied with an intricately braided leather strap, carefully put in place. In another, he found a pouch with a stone-carved pipe with a residue of cannabis.
As the tomb robber started to move his hands and fingers across the pelt, a strange feeling gripped his mind. It was a spontaneous connection, an incredibly strong Deja-vu feeling of consciousness. He was thrust back violently to another time. As his mind connected to a story and his light slowly swept across the tiger hide, imagery began to unfold that would change the way modern homo-sapiens viewed their ancient ancestors. This find was a time capsule from the early Pleistocene era, a message from our earliest upright walking hominoid ancestors. This is the story Dunnigan was able to tell.
CHAPTER 1
“Our relationships with the natural world, charting the ecological losses caused by hominoid activity has been an ever-present dilemma and will be our own demise.” Anonymous
With the physical connection, the touching of the glyphs Dunnigan found etched into the tiger skin, an incredible vison and recollection shook his consciousness. Dunnigan saw an early hominoid and felt a name resonate in his mind and body. The gravelly voice of…
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