Package Addressed to Indiana Jones Leaves U. of C. in a 'World of Mystery'

By Kyla Gardner
 
(DNAnfo.com) CHICAGO — A package addressed to Indiana Jones left the University of Chicago in a "world of mystery" Thursday, even after the school's plea for clues bull-whipped the Internet into high gear.According to the UChicago College Admissions Tumblr site, the most plausible explanation, but "least exciting," is that someone purchased the package from a replica-maker on eBay and dropped it off at the university.The university's admissions office received the package — addressed to Henry Walton Jones Jr.  — Wednesday. The staff didn’t notice anything strange, even though the crinkled brown paper was stuck with fake stamps.

“We gave it to one of our students thinking it was mistakenly sent to us and said, ‘Fnd out who this professor is,’” said Grace Chapin, senior admissions counselor. “They came back laughing to us and said, ‘This is for Indiana Jones'... [We] opened it and were in a world of mystery from there.”

Inside the package, the staff found a weathered journal modeled after that of fictional U. of C. professor Abner Ravenwood, ol’ Indy’s mentor.

The velvet-spined book was filled with photos, postcards and fake paper money, all “mostly, but not completely handmade,” according to the U. of C. Tumblr site.

“You touch it, and it feels like its been on a shelf for many years,” Chapin said. “It feels like an old book. It’s not like someone just went to Barnes and Noble and bought a journal and put some stuff in it.”

The office asked for help from “nerdly social media sites,” even going so far as to set up an email account for the mystery.

Chapin said there has been an outpouring of ideas but few answers.

Lucasfilm denied the item was a promotional gimmick for the "Indiana Jones" franchise, according to the Tumblr.

Others have suggested the package is part of an online alternate reality game, and the typos on the package — like a misspelling of “Illinois” —  are clues.

Or maybe the mail is a work of “abandoned art.”

“There’s this movement in art where you leave art in places and don’t take credit for it and leave it for people to enjoy,” Chapin said.

After the package’s viral life dies down, visitors to the university can still enjoy it.

“Whether or not we figure out what it is, we’ll have the special collection take it and put it in the archives,” Chapin said.

Something the archaeology professor himself might have enjoyed

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• Package Addressed to Indiana Jones Leaves U. of C. in a 'World of Mystery' 

Staggering Number of Bones of Extinct Ice Age Animals Found in Mexico

Apparently, archaeologists have also found a few human skeletal remains at the excavation site

By Sanskrity Sinha

(International Business Times) More than hundred bones of animals, now extinct, that thrived over 10,000 years ago (the late Pleistocene period), have been discovered in the state of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico.

Remains of megafauna that lived more than 10,000 years ago in what is now the Valley of Mexico. (Photo: INAH) The discovery was made at a construction site of a wastewater treatment plant near the river El Salto in the city of Atotonilco de Tula, archaeologists at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), announced in a statement.

The remains include bones of several extinct animals including mastodons and mammoths among others, which were found scattered at different distances within an area of approximately 100 hectares, and as deep as 10 metres.
“The skeletal remains of extinct animals, some of which measure up to 1.60 m, corresponding to ribs, vertebrae, skulls, jaws, defences (fangs), horns and shells, of species such as glyptodont, mastodon, mammoth, camel, horse, deer, bison and possibly other as yet unidentified,” INAH archaeologists said, adding that it took about five months of excavation work to dig out all the remains.

Though remains of mammoths have been found in the past as well, archaeologists are dubbing it as the biggest discovery of the Ice Age’s large-bodied animal remains ever made in the region.

“This is the most numerous and varied discovery of remains of extinct megafauna, found together, registered so far in the Basin of Mexico” INAH archaeologist Alicia Bonfil Olivera said.

Human Bones

Apparently, archaeologists have also found a few human skeletal remains at the excavation site but scientific investigation for confirmation is yet to be done. However, two stone tools found in the excavation suggest that the bones may be of a human.

“The characteristics and size of some bones indicate that it is human limbs, which is not surprising because it is known that the man lived in central Mexico at that time.”

The sediments and sand layer in which the faunal remains were found further indicate that the animals and possibly humans probably were trapped in landslides and got buried in the debris.

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• Staggering Number of Bones of Extinct Ice Age Animals Found in Mexico

Seal of King Zedekiah's minister found in J'lem dig

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday.

The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the site.

The excavation at the City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

"On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur - only meters away from the place where we found the bulla of Yehukhal ben Shelemyahu - since these two ministers are mentioned side by side in the Bible as having served together in the kingdom of King Zedekiah," Mazar said.

The first bulla was uncovered inside an impressive stone structure, which Mazar believes is the Palace of David, while the second bulla was found at the foot of the external wall of the same structure, under a tower that was built in the days of Nehemiah.

Both of the bullae with the names of the two ministers, measuring 1 cm. in diameter each, were found among the debris of the destruction of the First Temple period.

The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved, Mazar said.

Both ministers are mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38 1-4) along with two other ministers when they came to King Zedekiah demanding the death of the prophet Jeremiah for preaching to the besieged city to surrender.

Mazar said it was "absolutely fantastic" to have uncovered the seals "complete and in perfect condition" after 2,600 years, affording scholars a clear read of the names that were impressed on them.

"It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," she said.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her excavation that may have uncovered the Biblical palace of King David nearby, has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including the remnants of a wall from the Biblical prophet Nehemiah, also in the area.

Other Biblical-era bullae were previously found a quarter century ago at the City of David site. In 1982, the Israeli archeologist Yigal Shiloh discovered a cache of bullae in a nearby site, including one with the name of Gemaryahu ben Shaphan - mentioned in the Bible as a minister and scribe during the reign of King Jehoiakim (608-597 BCE).

The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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