I went through the carbon dating data of the bone samples sent to us at the end of the day. They had completed 14 more samples. The trend seemed to continue. The deeper in the pile the bone sample was taken the older it was. The oldest sample date now was over 200 years old.
~~~
Inca's Death Cave:
An Archaeological Mystery Thriller
By Bradford G. Wheler
As you can see, I have a guest reviewer today...found her when I was looking for the trailer and enjoyed her review, When I was considering how to start my review, I was thinking of who would be interested in the novel...My first thought was young adults, college students, lovers of Archaeology... If you fall into those interest groups, be sure to check out this novel out the 19th of this month!
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I thought, I've only met this
man three times and yet I'm
more motivated about his
project than I've been about
anything in decades. On the
face of it, it is a crazy
almost hopeless project. Yet
I somehow truly believe we
can do it! It is interesting
how motivating a little
genuine respect, and
heartfelt praise can be...
~~
|
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I only had a vague idea of what I needed to research. I had spent years studying various
aspects of pre-Columbian archaeology but never with something like the search for a
cave temple/tomb and especially not at the specific time period we were looking at. I
hoped if I did a review withy that in mind I might come up with a pattern that I didn't now
see or at least something helpful. Plus the team members were all hard at work, I was
being paid well, and treated well, so I had to work hard at something...
I started by listing the 25 major sites in alphabetical order...
~~~ |
Unfortunately Kate didn't add her last name so I didn't get a chance to touch base with her but since it was posted and permitted to be embedded, I took advantage of it. I thought there was one difference in our thoughts...I, too, love Indiana Jones and similar stories, but I didn't feel this book was as fast-paced as is normal for movies. I would think it is closer to The Librarian or Warehouse 13 although this novel is much too historically grounded to ever be considered scifi...I'm comparing the tone of the researchers in these two shows as more related to a professor leading a group of brilliant students and young adults in a major archaeological project. Or, maybe I just like the character choice from the Librarian as more the personality of Johnson, LOL... Professor Johnson's office had even been broken into before they left the campus, so they all knew that somebody was already aware of their journey!
While Professor Johnson teaches at Cornell with his assistant also working on her degree, they are both asked to take a sabbatical to work for a billionaire character, Walter Falone, who is wonderfully drawn as an individual who we wish would be "the prototype" for how billionaires who
have found this capability within themselves, then moves on to help others to use discovered technical expertise or equipment...or the time of his staff being used to prevent a job being redone by somebody else... Alas, there are not too many like this character, I would imagine, since he doesn't make a big "todo" about the power he has actually come to have...
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Monastery of St. Catherine
Arequipa, Peru |
Because of the brilliant and philanthropic character presented as the backer of this project, readers will discover that there are shifts made to allow the philanthropy to dominate and thus lengthen the book. For instance, trying to gather background material from a monastery and the Catholic church led to a decision to further help the monastery, even to the point of getting another group of researchers from Cornell coming in to fulfill their total needs rather than just was needed for the original project.
One of the small space management projects I had while working at a university was to find suitable space to create a "Dig." Unique requirements, right? Where can I put a lot of dirt and then put artifacts there for students to learn how to dig for these items? But it is all so interesting when you find almost forgotten information. For instance, the place that was being sought was supposedly to have been created by an early group whose primary god was the Moon rather than the Sun. Indeed, there are still remains of a Temple of the Moon... Huayna Picchu, Peru ,
I think older readers will tend to ponder over the background presented in addition to the action and adventure...which is certainly there, especially when a group of drug cartel members start shooting and Johnson's team kills family of the local drug lord... Revenge quickly comes calling!
This scene brings Professor's grad student, Brilliant Abby Summers, more clearly into the center of the story, when she calmly shoots and kills three of the cartel,,, which soon brings in a new character, her grandfather who takes a job on the farm...
Abby and all the other students add greatly to the story. Most of them are techies...so far above my head and that of most people, that there was a little too much to try to comprehend. On the other hand, I think those in college or just beginning to work will marvel with what is being done with the technological advances created or used by Falcone Advanced Technologies. In fact, I think this was the key difference between this and most other "treasure" hunt stories. Dependency on the technology, and/or working to create, test, and merge uses of technology was part of the project; i.e., there was to be a test of equipment utilization for archaeological purposes... Although I didn't understand much of it, I was nevertheless thoroughly impressed with the results and how it was manipulated to better suit their needs!
An intriguing side story came in when one of those computer programs was to be tested... I'm purposely not mentioning the background because it's a fun part of the story, other than to say that the Professor's Team was called "The Rejects..." One interesting investigation was being done by one of the team on "Quipus" or "Talking Knots"
For the Inca, the system aided in collecting data and keeping records, ranging from monitoring tax obligations, properly collecting census records, calendrical information, and military organization. The cords contained numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. A quipu could have only a few or up to 2,000 cords--Wikipedia
Have you noticed that I haven't actually told what the goal of this project was? That's because I'm not so sure that this is actually the end--yes, I'm hoping for a sequel... There was a find of lots of bones that were found in a pile--it appeared that they had come to that location via the river... And then there is reference to...more...and ends!
You know, the first book I read from this author was about Cats! Do check it out! I'm figuring that this author has the curiosity of cats and plans on telling us more about this wonderful project that's underway! Please....Don't prove me wrong 'cause I'm looking forward to spending more time with this wonderful group of characters who take readers into some beautiful spots of Peru's history!
Looking for a treasure to read? Check out Inca's Death Cave!
GABixlerReviews
Biography
Bradford G. Wheler author of "INCA'S DEATH CAVE An Archaeological Mystery Thriller" and President of BookCollaborative.com.
BRADFORD G. WHELER is the former CEO, President and Co-owner of Allan Electric Company. He sold Allan Electric to a New York Stock Exchange listed company. After staying on as President during the transition, Brad retired.
Brad's lifelong love of history, art, books, and the inherent humor in man's nature led to the founding of BookCollaborative.com and the authoring and publishing of Inca's Death Cave as well as GOLF SAYINGS: wit & wisdom of a good walk spoiled, "CAT SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from the whiskered ones, HORSE SAYINGS: wit & wisdom straight from the horse's mouth, DOG SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from man's best friend, and SNAPPY SAYINGS: wit & wisdom from the world's greatest minds.Brad played polo on the Cornell University men's polo team for four years and was a member of the Cazenovia Polo Club. In 2012 he was inducted into the Manlius Pebble Hill Athletic Hall of Fame.
He holds a BS and ME in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY as well as an MBA degree from Fordham University in New York, NY.
Brad, his wife, Julie, and their golden retriever Quincy live in Cazenovia, NY and Fort Pierce, FL.
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Did you know that Amigo and Gremlin, who now live on the Hobby Ranch we visited yesterday, are originally from the Andes in Peru? I was so excited because today, we're introducing Peru to your children...and soon, maybe even tomorrow, we're going to visit with a family of missionaries who live there! That will be next book in a series and it is sooooo good, I can't wait to tell you about it! But now, get your ponchos on cause we're heading there to check out...
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If you lived in Peru, you might live in Lima, the capital of Peru. One third of the Peruvian population lives there. It is a large city with nine million people! What I found personally interesting to me was the older parts of the city which included many of the restored buildings and the beautiful displays!
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Girls may be named Rosario.jpg)
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Papa rellena and Picarones for me please!.jpg)
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