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Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 08:52:50 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) 5HC: woodhenge without abos

Adam Stephanides quoted and wrote:
>> If there are no abos, really, and never were, then how to explain the
>> astronomical observatory--the trees predate the French colonists by around
>> 120 years.
>
>To pick a nit, 127 (Annese) years is the age of the trees when they were cut
>down, not when the French first arrived.

You are right!  And the trees were not likely cut down by the first
starship crew.  It was done by the settlers (aka colonists), and the first
wave of settlers could not have come any sooner than 42 years (radio time
plus NAFAL transit time) after French discovery.

42-127 = -85, or 85 years before French discovery.  Rather than circa 120
French discovery.

Would the colonists cut down all the trees in their first year on the
ground, or, like the stripping of the outer shells of the pyramids to build
Cairo (historical echo), would it happen much later?

Marsch is reporting in year 180: it is technically possible that the
observatory was planted by the first starship crew in the year 0, and then
was not harvested as lumber until the colony grew large enough to have such
demand, around year 127.  Then the stumps would have 53 years to rot and
decay before Marsch sees them.

IIRC year 127 would be close to the year that Number Four was born (FL
135).  But still after the War (FL 100).

=mantis=


Sirius Fiction
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
31 copies of "Snake's-hands" until OP!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/



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