Chapter 10 Chapter 8 Return to the Olduvai Gorge

Dr. Stephen Diermark often told himself that although this place is only ten kilometers away from the place where the Leakey and his wife dug up the first ancestor of human beings more than 500 years ago, they probably won't recognize this place anymore.Rising global temperatures and the "Little Ice Age" (shortened by awesome technology) have reshaped the landscape and completely changed the biographies here.Oaks and pines are still struggling to grow upwards, competing with climate change. It is hard to believe that now, in AD 2513, there is anything in the Olduvai Gorge that has not been dug up by fanatical anthropologists.However, recent flash floods (which should never have happened again) reshaped the area, cutting away several meters of topsoil.DeerMarco took advantage of this great opportunity - right there, at the extreme end of the deep scan, there was something he couldn't quite believe.

It took more than a year of slow and careful excavation work to get close to the ghostly figure, and to discover that the truth was far stranger than he had dared imagine.Excavators quickly remove the top few meters of topsoil, which is then traditionally picked up by slave-like graduate students.Their work was assisted—or hindered—by four chimpanzees, whom Piper Marco found more trouble than they were worth.Yet the students adored the genetically engineered orangutans, treating them like lovable children with limited intelligence.There are also rumors that this relationship is not just limited to the spiritual level.

In any case, the last few meters are carried out entirely by hand, usually with a toothbrush - again soft bristled, which is lightly brushed over.Now it's finally finished: not even Howard Carter, the man who saw the first gleam of gold at the pyramid of Tutankamen, found such a treasure.From this moment on, Marco Piper knew that human beliefs and philosophies will undergo earth-shaking changes. This stone slab appears to be a twin to the one found on the moon 500 years ago, and even the surrounding excavation holes are almost exactly the same size.Like TMA1, it is also completely non-reflective. The glare of the scorching African sun and the pale twilight of the sun are all absorbed by it without discrimination.

While leading relevant people down to the excavation hole (including six or seven of the world's most famous museum curators, three outstanding anthropologists and two media leaders), Marco Dier was thinking, such a group of outstanding and excellent People, have you ever been so silent.But as long as they understand the meaning of the thousands of man-made objects around them, this dark rectangular stone slab will definitely create such an effect. Here is the treasure trove of archaeologists—roughly polished flint tools, countless human and animal bones, all carefully arranged.For centuries, no, thousands of years, these humble gifts have been brought here by the ancestors of man who had the dawn of wisdom, to dedicate them to wonders beyond their comprehension.

Also beyond our comprehension, Marco Piper often thinks so.But there were two things he was sure of, though he didn't know whether he could prove it. This is—in both time and place—the true beginning of humanity. Also, this stone slab is the origin of many human gods.