Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

"Sifna, can I understand this? That village was burned nine times in a row, and every time they burned, they rebuilt it?" Beanie said. "My colleague Balik thinks that there are only seven villages superimposed on the Tombo mound," replied the archaeologist. "Indeed, he may be right. No matter how many there are, it doesn't matter how many there are, it will not change our fundamental view of it. Look at these diagrams, drawn based on excavation records. Of course, this is just a test The precise excavation is a rough understanding of the whole hill, and the rigorous work needs to be completed by further excavation.Since it was discovered so late, it was too late to do anything else.But these graphs will give you an idea...you won't be interested, will you?I believe these materials will interest you.

"I found it interesting. Do you think I'm only interested in astronomy and dismiss any other disciplines? Besides, astronomy and archeology are sometimes inseparable. I have studied the inscriptions of the Sun, and learned a great deal about the movement of the sun in the sky. Well, let me see." They were in Sifna's office right now.Sifna called Bean to discuss a problem she hadn't anticipated while researching.This is really difficult for Beanie, although he has said that astronomy and archaeology are inseparable, but how astronomers help archaeologists, he has not been able to figure it out all at once.However, whenever he had the opportunity to visit Sifna, he was always happy.

They first met five years ago, when they were working together on an interdisciplinary committee for the expansion of the university library.Although Sifna has spent most of her excavation work abroad since then, they have often met and shared lunch whenever they can be co-located.He found her attractive, brilliantly intelligent, gruff and fresh.What she thought of him was that he was an independent, perhaps intellectually exciting young man.He neither walks with her, is against each other, nor has a special interest in her body. Sifna spread out the diagram, which was a piece of drawing paper as thin as kraft paper, covered with pencils and filled with complex and exquisite graphics.She and Benny leaned over to examine it carefully.

Beanie was telling the truth when he said he was interested in archaeology.When he was a child, he liked to read some descriptions of great ancient explorers, such as Malbin, Shelbyk, and of course less than Galdo221.When he thought of the distant past, he felt as if he had entered a distant starry sky, and he was very excited. His contract partner, Resta, was somewhat dissatisfied with his friendship with Sifna. She tentatively stated several times that it was Sifna who fascinated him, rather than her field of study, but Beanie thought that Reis Tower's jealousy was absurd.There is no doubt that Sifna is a very attractive woman... If she hides something, it will not be true... She is merciless to men, and there is no romance at all.All the men on campus know this.Beanie was as pretty as she was, and it never occurred to her to have a closer relationship.

"Look first, here's a cross-section of a hill," Sifna told him. "I've diagrammed each individual layer. Naturally, the upper layer is closest to us... made of boulders , we call it the megalithic layer, which represents the mature Bekerimot culture. This black line in the megalithic layer is the charcoal layer...so much charcoal that there was a scale The huge fire burned down the entire city. Look here again, under the boulder layer and the charcoal layer, there is another layer of living that is closer to us." "It's architecturally different." "Exactly, see how the stone wall was painted? It's what we call a cross-style layer, which represents the early Berkelimot culture, or the embryonic stages of the Berkelimot culture. The two styles Both can be seen in the Bekerimot period site near Mount Tombo, the main remains are megaliths, and from time to time we see some crosses, exposed in places. We call it Berkeley Mote primitive culture layer. Now, look here, below the megalithic layer and the cross layer..."

"Another layer of charcoal?" Beanie said. "Yes, another layer of charcoal. This mound is like a big sandwich ... a layer of human remains, a layer of charcoal, another layer of ruins, another layer of charcoal. I see. That's it. During the cross style period, a fire destroyed most of the Sajikan peninsula, and people were forced to abandon Tombo and other cross style villages around. After that, people went back to the place and started rebuilding , they adopted a new and more refined architectural style, which we call Megalithic because of the huge stones. But then there was another fire that completely destroyed the Megalithic building. This fire Afterwards, people gave up the practice of rebuilding on Mount Tombo, and selected a nearby site for reconstruction. This is what we call the main site of Berkelimot. For a long time, we believed that it was the first city built by human beings. Built on the basis of smaller intersecting style buildings of the original period scattered around here and there. What the Tombo site tells us is that there was at least one important megalithic city before Bekerimot existed."

"There's no sign of any fire at the main site of Bekelimot?" Biney said. "No. After the top city of Tombo was burned, the charcoal ash layer disappeared. In the end, the whole Beklimot died out, and the main site of Beklimot was abandoned, but the reason was related to the climate and was no longer Fire. This happened about a thousand years ago. The fire that burned the top city of Tombo Mound seems to be much earlier, I guess about a thousand years earlier. We are using carbon... 14 in the laboratory to determine We will get more accurate data by then.” "So, how many years are crossover style layers?"

"Orthodox archaeological research has always held that the scattered interspersed-style structures we have found scattered across the Sajikan Peninsula predate the main site of Bekerimot by only a few generations. Since the discovery of Tombo Mound, I have Changed perspective. My opinion is that the cross-style layer on the mound is more than two thousand years older than the top megalithic layer." "Two thousand? Are you saying that all the following floors are like this?" "Look at this picture," Sifna said, "it's the third floor... It's built in a style we've never seen before, it doesn't look like a cross-style floor at all; then there's another fire line; then there's The fourth residential layer and the fire line; the fifth floor and the fire line; layer or seven."

"And every floor was destroyed by fire! Seems a bit too surreal to me. A destructive cycle of death, destroying the same place over and over again." Sifna said in an incomprehensible tone: "The strange thing is that each layer of the residential layer here experienced roughly the same period of time before it was destroyed by the fire. The thickness of each layer is very similar. You know, we're waiting for the inspection report. But I don't think my eyeballs will make much of a difference, and Barrick's basically agrees with mine. Unless we're all wrong, and we both think Tombo mounds are in It took at least 14,000 years for its prehistoric formation. During the entire formation process, it was continuously burned by periodic fires, and the intervals between these fires were very regular...about two thousand years!"

"what?" Benny couldn't help shivering.A variety of unlikely but worrying outcomes began to flash through my mind. "Wait a minute, there are more here." Sifna said.She opened a drawer and took out a stack of glossy photos. "These are Dr. Tom's clay pictures. The originals are at Mudlin 505... You know, he's an expert on ancient texts, and he's trying to decipher them. They're clay-fired blocks. This Three tablets were found on the third floor, and these three tablets were found on the fifth floor, all using very primitive scripts. The earlier three tablets used scripts that were too ancient for Mudrin to work on, but he could Tentative guesses were made about parts of the three tablets found in the third layer, which were in the early alphabetic form of the Bekerimot script. All he could tell so far was that they described the city being destroyed by fire... …is the result of provoking God. God finds man so full of wickedness that periodic punishment is necessary."

"regular?" "Yes. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" "It's the Flame Sect! That's right! They said something like that. Sifna, why is this such a coincidence?" "I've been asking myself this question ever since Mudlin gave me the general meaning of the interpretation." The archaeologist suddenly turned to face Biney.For the first time in his life, Beanie noticed how tired her eyes were, how nervous her face was, and she looked very disturbed. "Do you know why I sent you here? I can't tell anyone else in the department about this. Beanie, what should I do? If this is made public, Mondial and his crazy associates will publicly announce , I found solid archaeological evidence for their crazy theory!" "You think so?" "What else is there?" Sifna patted the chart gently, "This is the evidence that a fire will occur every two thousand years for several thousand years. And these soil slips... It looks like, It is, in fact, a prehistoric version of the Apocalypse. Taken together, if not convincing proof of the clamor of the Pyroists, at least a solid rationale for all their mythology." "But the repeated occurrence of fires in one place does not prove that the disaster is worldwide," Biney retorted. "It's the periodicity that worries me," Sifna said. "It's too similar, too close to what Mondial is clamoring for. I'm reading the Book of Revelations. For the Flames, the Sajkan Peninsula It's their holy place. Did you know that? The holy place is where God let man see them. That's what they say. So there's something that stands up to analysis and deduction...Listen to me, stands up to analysis and deduction .” She laughed bitterly at this point. "That's where God used to keep Sajjkan as a place to warn mankind. They used to warn mankind that if they don't change their evil way of life, mankind will be destroyed over and over again." Beanie stared at her dumbfounded. Indeed, he didn't know much about the Pyromen and their teachings.Never had any interest in such morbid fantasies.Furthermore, scientific research kept him busy all day long, and he would not have time to pay attention to Mondial's empty apocalyptic prophecies. At this moment, he suddenly remembered the conversation he had with Serimon 762 at the Liuyang Club three months ago, and felt a little angry. "This is not the first time the world has been destroyed...God intentionally made humans imperfect and gave us only one year...to be their year, not ours...to reinvent ourselves. This year is called The year of penitence, the length of which is exactly equal to our year 2049." No!no no!What a stupidity!Grandstanding!Absurd! There are more friends. "At the end of the year of repentance, God found us still wicked and sinful, and sent down fire from heaven to burn us up. And so on and on and on... Anyway, that's what the Flayists say." No!No! "Benny?" Sifna said. "Are you all right?" "Just thinking about it," he said. "It's doubtful, indeed. You'd give those believers a full proof." "Not necessarily. Someone will be able to find a way to refute Mondial's ideas. The Tombo fire... even if it is a fire that has been repeated for about two thousand years... It cannot prove that the entire world will be destroyed by fire, or that such a fire will be destroyed. It must happen again. Why must what happened in the past repeat in the future? However, these sharp minded people must be a minority. Mondial will use my findings to deceive. Most of them will be swayed by it , and immediately became panicked. Don't you know that the Flames have announced that the next year of devastating fires will come next year?" "I know." Beanie said hoarsely, "Theremon told me that they have also fixed the specific date. To be precise, it is a cycle in 2049, and it is only a little more than eleven months away from this cycle. If you Believe in Mondiel, then the sky will be dark and the fire will be upon us. This day will be September 19 next year." "Theremon? The journalist?" "Yes, actually he is a friend of mine. He is very interested in what the believers preach. He is also conducting an interview with one of their senior figures, who seems to be a pastor. Theremon told me..." Sifna reached out suddenly, grabbed Benny's arm, squeezed it so hard that her fingertips almost plunged into his flesh. "You've got to promise me you haven't told him anything about it, Beanie!" "To Theremon? No, of course not! Your discovery has not been made public, and it is inappropriate to reveal anything to anyone! Besides, he is a man of integrity." Her iron-like hand loosened, but only a little. "Sometimes secrets are just spilled among friends. 'Not for reference', it's all lies...Beanie, you must know that when you tell someone like Theremon, there's nothing left 'Not for citation'. If he finds it useful, he will. Whether he promises you or not, he's probably as 'honest' as you think he is." "This...maybe..." "Trust me. If Theremon knew the conclusions we'd reached, believe me, it'd be all over the Chronicle in a day's time and ruin my career, you know, Beanie? I I will become notorious and become a person who provides evidence for the ridiculous statements of the Flame believers. Beanie, I completely hate them, and I do not want to provide them with any form of help and support. Of course, even on the surface, I do not I won't believe any of their strange talk." "Don't worry," said Beanie, "I'll never tell him a word." "Never. As I said, it would ruin my reputation. I went back to the university to make a big breakthrough in my research. My discoveries at Tombo have caused controversy in the department because they The established notion that Bakery Moat is the oldest town challenges. If Theremon knocks the Fire Pie's shit on my head again, it's going to be..." But Beanie hardly listened.He sympathized with Sifna's situation, and of course he would not cause him any trouble.Theremon would never hear anything about her research from him. However, his mind was thinking about another thing, another big worrying thing.The words of the flame sect that Theremon said kept turning in his mind. "...in about 14 months' time, the sun will all disappear..." "...the stars will rain down fire from the dark sky..." "...the exact time of the disaster can be calculated scientifically..." "...the dark sky..." "...all the suns will disappear..." "Darkness!" muttered Beanie hoarsely. "Is that possible?" Sifna was talking non-stop.Hearing what he said, he stopped suddenly. "Benny, you didn't listen to me, did you?" "I... what? Ah, ah, yes, of course! You said I couldn't let Theremon know anything about it because it would ruin your reputation. And... and... listen , Sifna, do you think we can discuss this another time? Tonight, tomorrow afternoon, or what time? I have to go to the observatory immediately." "Then, don't let me delay you." She said coldly. "No, that's not what I mean. I'm interested in what you're talking about... and it's important, so important that I can't even express it. But I have to check one thing, it's directly related to what we're discussing Relationship." She put her head in front of Beanie and looked at him carefully. "Benny, look at your face is flushed, your eyes are wide open, and you are acting abnormally too quickly. You suddenly remembered such a distant thing. What's the matter with you?" "I'll tell you," he said, stepping out the door, "later! I promise you!"