The mysterious package and handmade journal “belonging” to Abner Ravenwood. (Kayleigh Pryzgoda / University of Chicago)
The University of Chicago is grappling with a mystery today involving Indiana Jones, of all people.
According to the university’s admissions department Tumblr page, a package arrived at the university on Wednesday addressed to Henry Walton Jones Jr. Unsure where to put the package, the student office worker set it aside until someone realized it wasn’t intended for any actual student or faculty member, but a fictional character who in his story was once enrolled at the University of Chicago: Indiana Jones.
The character’s Wikia profile, compiled from information released about the character through the films, TV series, video games and supplemental novels, says he was a student there sometime in the early 1920s.
When the package was finally opened, the mystery grew. Inside was an apparently handmade re-creation of Abner Ravenwood’s diary. Ravenwood, for those not familiar with the Indiana Jones films, was Jones’ professor at the University of Chicago whose knowledge of the Ark of the Covenant set in motion the story of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Steven Spielberg’s landmark 1981 film starring Harrison Ford as the adventuresome archaeologist.
Interior pages from the journal. (Kayleigh Pryzgoda / University of Chicago)
“The book itself is a bit dusty, and the cover is teal fabric with a red velvet spine, with weathered inserts and many postcards/pictures of Marion Ravenwood (and some cool old replica money) included,” the admissions department wrote on its Tumblr page.
Some sleuthing on the part of the university discovered that the package had never actually been sent through the mail — the postage on the outside of the package was not real, even though it was dirty and scuffed as though it had been in transit.
So why did someone send this package here? Is it promotional? Is it an attempt to gain admission to the university? Is it some kind of art project?
The university is baffled and is soliciting help and advice, establishing an email address — indianajonesjournal@uchicago.edu — in order to get tips and insight.
A representative from Lucasfilm expressed bewilderment about news of the package. So it was not a misdirected bit of film promotion.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” (Lucasfilm)
Have theories of your own? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.
– Patrick Kevin Day
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You didn't bring the diary son, did you? Then, where did you put the diary?!
Art much like Christo's fence but at a micro level. Lets see how many waves it makes and what it says about us.
I think that is cool. Someone did that project and sent it there. That is rare and interesting.
Hey Rockstarfan…please re-read the article. This time try to comprehend and retain some of the contents.
You said: "Someone did that project and sent it there".
First…was it really a project or just someone passing their time with something that interests them. Look up the meaning of "project".
Secondly… if you had some comprehension and retention abilities, you would note that the envelope containing the book was not "sent" to the college, rather it was delivered by unknown sources.
May be it is a prank by some one trying to revive an interest in the old adventurous archeologist.
HMMMM, promotion of school lol
wow this is something,someone took a lot time making this up.i have all the Indiana Jones movies.
I think its clear that someone has waaaaayyyy too much time on their hands. This is what happens ladies when you leave guys in the friend zone, they end up putting all kinds of energy into these sort of weird projects.
I don't know…I think it's kinda hot and I'm a chick. I'd help a guy make it!
HAAAHAHAHA too funny!
damn my college just had food from the temple of doom.
Staring??! Watch your spelling! What a maroon!
Its from the real indiana jones!, and he has proof that someone stole the information from his expedition journal, and had him detained he has smuggled this information out…..proving he does in fact exsist and wants credits & cash for the film.
It belongs in a museum!
Coronado's dead, and so are all of his grandchildren!
This is the second time I've had to reclaim my property from you!
SO DO YOU!!!
lol awesome
So do you!
Couldn't have said it better – absolutely one of Indy's cornerstone remarks – and I strongly feel that Raiders was the best of the Indiana Jones movies
submit it to the Hollywood Movie meuseum as a movie prop artifact!!!
Honestly, it sounds like an awesome prank that some college kids thought up at a party. I can see them saying "Everyone will be so confused, it'll be hysterical!" The fact that the investigation went as far as contacting Lucasfilm makes the prank even more epic!
Nobody commented on this until now? Amazing.
Fortune & Glory!
If you ask Spielberg…. im sure Aliens put it there during the last film.
Why did it have to be snakes?
Glad to see e have top men working on it now. Who? Top… men.
It is somewhere very….safe, Doctor Brady, Doctor Jones.
LOL Tom! Yours is the best comment by far!
Perhaps there is a person who is a modern day Indiana Jones and the end times scenario about a secret find that could save the world, hmmm.
no comment.
I wish I had thought of doing that.
you are making someone famous today
Put it in a secure glass display case for posterity and see if its worth grows; the journal has a lot of Jones history, and some neat drawings it seems. I would place it in a secure place in the library perhaps and charge admissions to view it….no touching.
He wasn't a student there, he was a Professor.
Sorry, Laura, you've got this wrong. Indy studied under Dr. Ravenswood at Chicago. Later, he was a professor at an unnamed University the exterior of which — as depicted in "Crystal Skulls" — looks remarkably like Marshall University in West Virginia.
No, he was a student. "Early 1920's." He was a young teenager in 1912 and taught at Marshall College throughout the 30's. This puts his undergraduate college years in the early 20's.
no… he WAS a student. Refer to "Mystery of the Blues" from the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
He ws a student at U of Chicago. A professor at Princeton.
It’s definitely promotional. Lucas and Speilberg are just trying to feel out the public interest for Indy 5. Of course they’re not going to admit it. That would defeat the purpose.
Is someone planning a new Indiana Jones movie? Maybe a fan is hoping to promote one. It doesn't take much imagination to build another movie around this possible publicity stunt. Maybe they're going to make it into a 3D movie. Put it out on IMAX. Whatever the intentions of the perpetrator, it is bound to build interest in the Jones' movies.
Yes there is another movie in the planning stages. They were contracted for an additional movie, but the problem is coming with with the proper idea for the last Indiana Jones Movie. It has to be Epic!
WOW & Very Cool…Hope you Sovle it before Next Friday,,,12/21/2012 LOL
I Hope! Hey Lucasfilm, need AWESOME Movie Ideas? Let me know, All I want is to NOT be one of the Horrid 47%, but win your Sick your Sick, Find me in Tulsa, OK
Merry Blessings & As Always…Leave them thurston4more!
All the searching of the Ark has been by people not reading all the facts of where it is, they are useing too much speculation, if they would read the facts for what they say, and forget their imagination, I feel they would find this. We now have the intelligance and the technology to find it if we could get someone to read just exactly what we know of it's past whereabouts, it has been overlooked a number of times. just hope I am alive when some one finds it, and will only find it if they read the facts, and leave out human error.
The Ark is located at Axum, Ethiopia. It was taken to Egypt during the time of the prophet Jeremiah and placed at a Temple built in Upper Egypt at Elephantine. When Egypt was attacked from the south by Nubians it was taken by them and placed a Axum where the descendents of Prince Menelik had established a branch of Judaism. Once a year a replica of the Ark is carried in Axum at a festival marking its arrival at Axum.
Oh, David, I love an educated man! I'm also glad that I didn't have to write all that, 'cause the way my day is going, I would have left something out. I myself really believe it is at Axum, and between belief in that and the fact that I wanted to be an archaeologist/Egyptologist, I always thought and hoped that I would be able to go to Egypt to study. If I were that lucky, I would definitely make a pilgramage to Axum, among other places. But, alas, it was not to be….
there is no possible way to leave out human error and still be human! it will never be found with that attitude.
Just some superfan hoping for "fortune and glory".
i suspect an extremely intelligent, uniquely talented university student.
The book seems to be available here: http://www.sarednabworldprops.com/eng/prop_replic…
I think you have solved the mystery. I went to the link you provided and there it was. Also note the shipping label – identical to the one found on that site. Now, the reason someone sent it?????
Good find Trevor. Perhaps the University of Chicago doesn't know how to look up stuff on google.
First of all, isn't it illegal to open someone's mail?
David, read the article carefully.
"Some sleuthing on the part of the university discovered that the package had never actually been sent through the mail — the postage on the outside of the package was not real, even though it was dirty and scuffed as though it had been in transit."
Since the package hadn't been mailed, and considering it was addressed to a fictional character, I fail to see how opening it could be construed as illegal.
Methinks it was Sallah who left the diary.
just fricken awesome good job dude
I should have mailed it to the Marx brothers.
Blame it on George Bush..
they opened the book and a whole lot of fire ants came running out, now nobody wants to go near it
They opened the book and a whole lot of fire ants came running out, now nobody wants to touch it
So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine.
interesting, a new movie in the works? good promo, its raining here, now i think i will spend the evening watching my Indiana Jones collection with the kids
This is great and if it does start anew follow up of Indy I hope they put his son in the movie he was great in the crystal skull.
NONE THE LESS, INTERESTING FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO WISH THEY COULD FIND SOMETHING NIFTY TO SHARE WITH THE WORLD
that picture was not in a diary, it was in a large book with locke indiana showed to the agents in the lecture hall. The only diary in the movie franchise was his fathers in the last crusade. get your facts right.
Only Spielberg etc, would know thefull name of Indiana Jones.. In Last Crusade, the dad only made mention of Henry Jones Jr. No mentione of Walden in any movie.. Obviously a promo stunt….and rather lame at that.
It really is Abner's journal. The whole idea for Indiana Jones was stolen from real life events and now the real Abner's Diary has been found. It will lead us to the real resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. It will save us all from the coming Apocalypse on the 21st. We have to hurry though because it will take us 7 days to get to it and uncover………S***!!!!! We're all doomed.
I think it's cool someone did this
but what's next, an amber sample mailed to Timothy or Alexis Murphy ?
Top Men
it was sent by the Lindbergh baby!
Maybe they oughta give a copy to Steven and see if he can come up with a finale for Indy 5?
Put it in a 1950s refrigerator that will not let you lock yourself in, and see how it is after a nuke goes off not too far away
Can't wait for the next Indiana J. movie…something about ' darkness '?
it was left by a real Indiana Jones from an alternate universe
I'd say it's a fanboy prank. However, I don't think I'd go through the trouble to make a realistic prop replica only to leave it sitting around for someone to find. Actually surprised it didn't have traces of anthrax in it.
I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence.
Maybe they were trying to get them to make a new Indiana Jones movie!
Hopefully.
Check out trainerbobonline.com
Very cool, creative. It's weird because I saw Indiana Jones in Union Square today amidst all the Santas as part of SantaCon SF, also very out of place.
What are they saying here? That Indiana Jones is not real?? This can't be!!! Is it ALL an illusion??!!
"I should have given it to the Marx Brothers."
Is there a job opening in marketing the college? Either this is the most creative college application ever or someone has brilliantly marketed themselves!
I thought Indiana U at Bloomington was the home of "Indiana Jones." As a professional archaeologist who got a degree there, WE sure claimed him!
The "diary" seems like a lot of work for someone — is Lucasfilm being honest? Was it stolen from a "prop room?" Why not ask Mr Ford?
Indiana took the name for himself, but as his father noted in the 'Crusade' film, he was named after their dog…… not the state or the university.
Am I the only one who realizes this is connected with the Mayan doomsday next week? Who better to save us than The Indiana Jones??
It's to heighten interest in Indy's new adventure "Indiana Jones The Treasure Of The Copper Scroll".
Wayyyy cool.
They should of sent it to the Marx Brothers!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that the author of this piece said the journal belonged to Ravenwood, when it actually was Indie's father who put it together. It was a journal book full of information he had put together about the possible whereabouts of the Holy Grail, not the Ark of the Covenant. I really wish these article writers would at least do the minimum of research required to write a very short spiel!
That said, I think it is really "neato"! Someone must have had a lot of fun researching it and putting it together. Not to mention watching the movies……. All Hail Mr.'s Harrison and Lucas!
Whoever sent it obviously has a wonderful imagination and did a great deal of research in both preparing the diary and the envelope in which it was contained. from what i can tell it looks very authentic and at very least should be put on display in the trophy cabinet or library. if you can find it s creator he should be commended. and perhaps steven spielberg could autograph it and take a photo with it s creator. at very least a wonderful mystery and a wonderful momento. it isint often you see creativity in this world anymore.
I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers..
Disney made it and dropped it hoping to promote it’s new franchise.
And now, I'm famous.
Indy forever!!!