THE ISSAHAR ARTIFACTS

By J. F. BONE

The following manuscript wasdiscovered during the excavationof a lateral connectinglink between the North-Southstreamways in Narhil Provincenear Issahar on Kwashior. Theexcavator, while passing througha small valley about 20 yurstssouth of the city, was jammed bya mass of oxidized and partiallyoxidized metallic fragments. Onmost worlds this would not beunusual, but Kwashior has no recordedhistory of metallic artifacts.The terrestrial operator,with unusual presence of mind,reported the stoppage immediately.Assasul, the DistrictEngineering monitor, realizedinstantly that no metallic debrisshould exist in that area, and inconsequence ordered a most carefulexcavation in the event thatthe artifacts might have culturalsignificance.

The debris proved to be theremnants of an ancient spaceshipsimilar to those described in SectorChronicles IV through VII,but of much smaller size andcruder design—obviously a relicof pre-expansion days. Withinthe remnants of the ship wasfound a small box of metal coveredwith several thicknesses oftar and wax impregnated fabricwhich had been mostly destroyed.The metal itself was badlyoxidized, but served to protect aninner wooden box that containeda number of thin sheets of afragile substance composedmainly of cellulose which werebrown and crumbling with age.The sheets were covered withrunes of lingua antiqua arrangedin regular rows, inscribed byhand with a carbon-based inkwhich has persisted remarkablywell despite the degenerativeprocesses of time. Althoughmuch of the manuscript is illegible,sufficient remains to settlefor all time the Dannar-MarraketControversy and lend importantcorroborating evidence tothe Cassaheb Thesis of Terrestrialmigrations.

The genuineness of this fragmenthas been established beyonddoubt. Radiocarbon datingplaces its age at ten thousandplus or minus one hundredcycles, which would place it atthe very beginning of the IntellectualEmergence. Its importanceis beyond question. Itsimplications are shocking despitethe fact that they conform tomany of the early legends andform a solid foundation for Dannar'sThesis which has heretoforebeen regarded as implausible.In the light of this material,the whole question of racial originsmay well have to be reevaluated.Without further comment,the translated text is presentedherewith. You may draw yourown conclusions. Go with enlightenment.

I have decided after somethought, to write this journal. Itis, I suppose, a form of egotism—forI do not expect that it shallever be read in the event that Iam unable to leave this place.Yet it affords me a certain satisfactionto think that a part ofme will remain long after I havereturned to dust. In any event,I feel that one is not truly deadif a part of his personality remains.Many of the ancients suchas Homer, Phidias, Confucius,Christ, da Vinci, Lincoln, Einstein,Churchill—and many others—liveon through their workswhen otherwise they would longsince have been forgotten andthus be truly dead. Earth's historyis full of such examples.And while I have no expectationof an immortality such as theirs,it flatters my ego to think thatthere will be some part of mewhich also will survive ...

(Note: There are several linesfollowing this which are obliterated,defaced or unreadable.There are more to follow. In thefuture such gaps in the contentw