^{Designed in Canva}

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During an excavation on land that has been shown to be related to ancient tribes dating back more than 3,000 years, which had been abandoned many years ago, some young archaeologists took up the project. During an exploration in the southern part of the area, they found a skeleton, which seemed not as old as what has been found so far.

They remember that the Archaeologist who preceded them had simply disappeared. After taking some samples of the bones and delimiting the area of ​​the discovery, they determined that it was outside the context of the excavation, which indicated that it did not belong to the same period, that was when they realized...

My Side of the Story

They couldn’t believe their eyes. The skeleton that lay half-buried in front of them was clearly not as ancient as the other remains they had been digging up for weeks.

“This is impossible,” Ana, the leader of the archaeology team, said. “We must have made a mistake.”

But a quick check of their coordinates confirmed they were still in the right place. This skeleton was an anomaly among everything else they had unearthed so far.

Marcus bent down to inspect the bones more closely, carefully removing some dirt from them. “No, I think these bones are too old to be from our time. But not nearly as old as the tribal relics we’ve been finding.”

“Do you think…it could be him?” Ana asked nervously.

The other archaeologists looked around nervously. Him was Jensen, the renowned professor who had first explored this site last summer. He had vanished without a trace shortly after reporting the discovery of possible ancient tribal settlements here. His disappearance remained a mystery.

Ana shook her head. “No, that’s impossible. How would he have ended up here?”

But the dates did seem to match. They gently lifted the skeleton out of the sandy ground and confirmed it was an adult male.

As they were taking pictures and notes, Ana noticed something shiny in the skeleton’s shirt pocket. She carefully pulled out an old pocket watch with a dent on it. She opened it and saw an inscription that read:

To my dear friend Jensen, may your greatest adventures still lie ahead.

Ana gasped and showed the others. This had to be Jensen’s skeleton. But how in the world had the respected professor died and been buried here?

Marcus looked at the bones closely. “I don’t see any obvious signs of injury or violence. No gunshot wounds or broken bones. It could have been a natural death.”

“That’s very strange though,” Ana said. “Why would he have been buried here alone instead of given a proper funeral in town?”

They wondered about the strange finding until late in the afternoon. As the sun started to set, Ana decided they should cover the skeleton and go back to camp for the night. They were all too tired and shaken to think clearly.

In their tents, they whispered and guessed late into the night. Some thought Jensen had simply gotten lost and died of exposure. Others suggested a more sinister fate related to the ancient tribal relics he had been so eager to find last summer.

The next morning, after drinking some strong coffee, Ana and Marcus agreed to go to town and inform the authorities of their finding. This was now a possible crime scene and they needed forensic experts to examine Jensen’s skeleton.

As they drove down the bumpy dirt road away from camp, Ana sighed sadly. “Poor Jensen. He loved this site so much. It’s such a sad way to go.”

Marcus nodded grimly and focused on the road ahead. He had a bad feeling their work here was far from over. Jensen’s strange death raised more questions than answers, and he suspected solving the full mystery could take months, or even years. For now, they headed towards town and an unknown future, leaving behind the solitary grave in the desert dust.

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I trust that you enjoyed reading my side of story. 😊

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^{I would like to invite @o1eh , @dove11, @cruzamilcar63, @waterjoe, @senehasa, @damithudaya, @f2i5, @weisser-rabe, @enrisanti, and @paholags to join this contest through this link, if they have not already taken part in it.}

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^{Author: @waqarahmadshah | Date: 12-Oct-2023 | Achievement 1}