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“If, only I could reach a little further along this branch, then I could swing down onto to that lintel”, life is tough for the solo archaeologist. She hauled herself along the branch, her legs trailing in the foliage below, and then a little further, then the re-assuring touch of stone underfoot. She lay breathless on the warm stone, in a minute she would have to get up, and get on with her research, she could not be sure how long she could stay at this site. She relayed a request to her ship in orbit, from her neural interface, and was reassured, when a real-time map, was shown on her wrist display, fortunately there seemed to be no-one about. She walked steadily along the top of a columnade, the dense jungle foliage between the columns below, it was at times like this, that she was thankful, that she was in a society which would allow her to follow her vocation.

The shadow, of a huge obelisk, briefly shaded her aerial pathway, the columnade, sharply turned towards it. It was this edifice that enraptured her attention. The row of columns formed a square around the obelisks base; she would have to descend before she could inspect the tower in greater detail. She leapt from the top of a lintel, her suit reinforced and artificially muscled, responded to her thoughts, and brought her to land safely, in a small clearing below, the five meter drop would have probably killed her without this advanced technology. She pushed her way through the dense green shoots, the people of this planet had stopped visiting this site about 500 hundred years ago, and in this time, this once glorious seat of learning had fell into disrepair. Civilization still existed on this world, there level of advancement being comparable to earth in the 1700’s, however this continent had no great civilizations of its own anymore, and it was under her own volition to come here and work out why.

The base of the obelisk, had a set of spiral staircases wrapped around it, one staircase to each of its four sides, fortunately despite the 500 years of neglect, the builders had appreciated the fact that this structure should have longevity, and was totally built from black igneous rock. Apart from the stairs, every part of the surface was covered in writing, long dark lines, the shadows of the recessed letters, nearly indistinguishable from the dark rock. She got out her small portable, the optical reader head, which she carefully attached, some hours before, extended its scanning apparatus. She enabled the scan and retrieve program her ship computer created after listening to her instructions. The lines of glyphs on the wall lit up, from the projector on the small computer, a running translation was visible on the small screen. She carefully read the text, she knew that she would not have to remember any of it now, as it would be sent to her ship above, as it was decoded.

Every step she climbed up the tower, the years of this ancient civilization unfolded, every new step, brought accounts of the passing years, a few steps pass a decade, a side to the obelisk, a century. She climbed increasingly slowly, until she had reached her crucial position, the portable, warbling an alarm to her alert her, she tried to read the screen, but it was hard to read due to its small size, she opted to project the translation onto the wall in front of her, there much easier to read. She found the glyph, the one that she specified should alert her, the word, ‘other’, not in the sense of option, but a adjective to describe a miraculous event. She continued her climb, the writing on the wall, changing subtly, grand drawings and pictures began to be interwoven into the stone walls, one step would not show the passage of a decade but of fractions of a year, it seems there was much more to talk about. She climbed a few more flights of stairs, watching the renaissance of this civilization on the walls, and then suddenly, cessation, she walked out onto to the top of the obelisk, the four stairs visible at the edge of the square slab she stood on, here, further blocks would have been added, to continue the recoding of the passing years, but there were no more.

She knew that this last block had been laid about 500 years ago, analysis of the carving showed how fresh it was. In other cities of this ancient civilization, smaller obelisks had been constructed, often many would be built parallel, as there were limits to there height, and so each small obelisk would detail a century, but in all the cities cessation of construction all happened at this same point. She sat on top of this huge edifice small plants already began to grow on the flat surface, though most of the black rock was still visible, wind and rain blown she guessed. The green of the forest extended to the horizon, occasionally broken by a meandering river. The reader and projector on her small computer retracted, as they became suddenly redundant for the moment. She sighed, it was a nagging problem, the civilization had been at its greatest glory when it had collapsed, and there were no signs that fractions had continued after its fall. It was as if time had stood still for this civilization. They had been advanced enough to be able to meet all there requirements, they would not have been affected by flood, nor drought. There influence had not spread beyond this continent, yet people still live here, though not descendents of this civilization. This was an enigma. She messaged her ship, to be ready to take her off the surface. She stood, the teleporter removing her from the current scenery in a brief flash of light.