Ccc 221 - Wishing to Travel Back in Light Years - Our Fingerprints Don’t Fade from the Lives We Touch

Joshita Yadav

Jaya Menon

CCC 221

Archaeology Assignment

10 September 2016

1000 years into the future. All I want to do is uncover the unknown. I am going back to planet earth for the systematic study of past human life and culture hoping to recover material evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools and pottery. I hope to find some remaining buildings which will serve as testimonies of man’s greatness and establish a dialogue between civilizations which once existed on planet earth showing the extent to which human beings living on landmass were linked. When I was chosen for this expedition, I had assumed we would be talking about bones and dinosaurs and carbon dating as my brain recalls. Humans in this seemingly utopian space resort where I live currently are saying that it is important to learn the past so we don’t make the same mistakes in the future. I am an archaeologist and thanks to advancements in biotechnology that I have recently had a brain transplant with the brain of a 1018 year old that had once been on the site we are on our way to. Earth seems to have been devoid of any hospitable environment suitable to host human life hence, my genes have been modified to face any extreme conditions I might experience on a planet abandoned since the past 200 years and I am writing this paper as a record of all my observations.

At the beginning I did not know that much about Archaeology. The main agenda for me and my team visiting back is to learn about how past cultures lived and so as to learn more about how humans have affected the Earth.  Due to the fact that Archaeology is not repeatable the information that is gained from this site is very valuable. The site that we have found is supposed to have been a well-established educational institution named Shiv Nadar University from where the previous owner of my brain did her college under graduation before her brain was kept in an in-vitro condition and transplanted in my body now. Shiv Nadar University has been abandoned since the past 200 years and is basically in ruins; at least this is what our aerial survey reveals. It is very dilapidated and worn out. It is the last site where any last ‘human’ activity was recorded.

We had sent a solar powered robot about 50 years ago to earth to a separate site which keeps on sending us information. On my way to Shiv Nadar University site which later transformed into a city, we saw something like a city of skyscrapers rising up from the land. A closer view revealed that the skyscrapers are all constructed out of garbage, neatly compacted into squares or bales and piled on top of one another. The solar-powered robot scoops up trash, shovels it into his belly, compresses it into a square and climbs on a tractor treads and heads up a winding road to the top of latest skyscraper, to place it neatly on the pile.

The ruins of Shiv Nadar University hold quite a promise of helping us find something. We do not know what we are looking for, but mostly, it is hope. Maybe just hope that earth is still hospitable because the entire remaining human race has settled into orbit aboard gigantic spaceships that resemble spas for the fat and lazy.

The moment we reach the 300 acre abandoned land, we see that it is a clearly demarcated from its surroundings by a fence like wall, although all of it is in ruins it automatically seems like a utopian society, which had broken off ties from the outside and erected a fence around its borders, keeping in all the inhabitants, keeping the city away from those who could harm. Archaeology isn’t entirely about dinosaurs and carbon dating; it’s all about the context. It helps us see the relationship between one object and the items around it, to create a bigger picture from many smaller pieces. It helps us realize that it’s not just one thing that is important, it’s the sum of many parts.  Standing on the outskirts of the ruins of the last human inhabited arenas on Earth I realize that this expedition will help all those of us in modern society see how similar we are to the societies of the past, not just the differences. It will also show  how our current actions are influenced by the past no matter how fast paced and ‘smart’ we have become with technological advancements, as well as how we could be affecting the future generations based on what we’re doing now.

        Archaeology can be used to learn about change over time. Most of the city is now abandoned or in ruins. The large gateway, which at least seems like a gateway out of what is left of it, is made of some really strong material. It has several broken pieces in its structure in between, which I am assuming were gaps where high-tech machineries must have been fixed so as to keep track of whoever was entering or leaving the boundaries of the Shiv Nadar University city.  The moment we enter we see that there is a huge Ferris wheel, which is deemed unusable but still worn.

As we walk further down the deserted area, I realize myself recalling how much things have changed. As far as my eyes can go, I see piles of dust and trash that the humans have left behind. The memory of the brain I have right now flashes back, and instead of these piles of trash around, I see beautiful green palm groves and lush green gardens and the beautiful blue sky. What could have been once a huge central park is now no more than a barren pile of grass and a large steel bean. There is a great lake, which has dried up, becoming a marsh rather than a lake. There is a huge half broken, half still erect bridge. It is said that north of the bridge, the buildings near the center of the city had once been in good, habitable conditions, while those within the outskirts are in shambles.

On simply digging along the top surface of what is left of the streets we find that there weren’t any clearly demarcated streets as such. But we find what seems like remains of broken off pieces of a huge plastic tube. It is transparent; there are a lot of scratches on it. We use brushes and other archeological tools to clear off the dust and degradation on its surface. We are assuming these could be the huge transport tubes on which people drove their flying transport vehicles when this city might have still been inhabited. We encounter a huge structure in the shape of the bean, and inscription on its top reveals that it was called the cloud gate. We do not know its purpose or history. The heat is killing and extremely warm. No clouds are seen nearby. Just a clear dusty sky. There is an atmosphere of smoke and dust all around. There is an eerie silence that hangs in the atmosphere. You can see ruins of structure all around and a lot of rubble lying on the ground, some covered under mounds of dust and sand and others simply peeking up on the surface. The land is cracked and dry.