Chronicles of a Future Archeologist

[Part 2 of the Future Perfect series]

From the journals of Pedro S. Palanca, PhD in Archeology and Ancient Antiquities.

I arrived at the coordinates 14°33'24"N 121°1'26"E with the sun already setting at the horizon. This might have been a religious ritual place or an astrological site. The positioning of the structures prove it so. As the sun sets, it shines along a long, wide clearing, bordered on its side by tall, slabs of stone and metal ruins.

The year is 3231.

I marvel at the gigantic structures all around and wonder how the ancients are able to build these massive feats of architecture. Each structure might have stood two thousand meters up or even higher. Their width might have been half a kilometer on all sides. The corners are all perfect angles. The sides are perfect lines. On all sides, there are perfect patterns of repeating square holes, about 2 meters by 2 meters wide. Each with perfect lines and angles.

On some structures, these holes are covered by a thin clear material almost crystalline in form. For some, the holes are decorated by complex ornate patterns-- flowing, zigzaging, crisscrosssing each other.

From my ancient guidebook, I learn that they call these 'Skyscrapers'. It has been theorized that the ancients used them to clean the skies of the sins of the humans hence the name. During their ceremonial rituals, the guidebook says, the monks dressed in their finest, would fall in line in front of offertory cages on the onset of the sunrise. At anytime, about 20 monks can fit on these cages. They would get in these cages and the structure would bring them to the heavenly spaces or 'cubicles' to be purified of their sins and to contribute in the scraping of  the skies. At sun's fall, the monk would return purified and duty accomplished. They would do this every single day as a form of religious devotion.

This structure on my right is the tallest skyscraper. They call it the Pibikom Tower, most probably in honor of Pibikom, the ancient god of banking and finance.

In front of me lies an endless stretch of flat, black surface. It is about 20 meters wide and stretches beyond the horizon. I stand in awe at the perfect flatness made of hard and seemingly indestructible stone like volcanic glass. It is an amazing work of technology by such primitive people. It is on these endless fields where the ancients parade their monks on their way to their ceremonies.

According to the guidebook, monks alight on metallic carriages or 'buses' all link to each other via a ritual called 'traffic'. The carriages move ceremoniously to an orrery of sound, from low pitched hums to high pitched screams. The carriage move slowly in those rituals until they reach the corresponding skyscraper. They call these surfaces 'Highways', since they are the pathways that lead to the skies or the 'Highs'.

The long highway stretching across my coordinate is called the Aiala Highway, named from Aiala, the goddess of lands, dwellings and real estate.

It's already dark and I need to get out of this place. The guidebook says the place is teeming with the spirits of the monks who died on their cubicles in the act of skyscraping.

On my next visits, I'm planning on exploring the secrets of the underground passages, the 'Underpass' and take a look at another technological masterpiece, the Emarti and how it met its horrific and disastrous death.

This is Pedro Palanca, PhD signing off for now.