Happy 50th anniversary to Simon Fraser University! This geocache is a four stage cache located in the SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (the northeast corner of the Academic Quadrangle in the Education Building). The museum is open Monday to Friday from 10am-12pm and 1-4pm (to confirm feel free to call 778-782-3325) and free to the public. All the information needed to solve the puzzles is located in the museum.
The Simon Fraser University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology collects, conserves, researches and exhibits artifacts from around the world, with a focus on British Columbia. The Museum is affiliated with the Department of Archaeology.
A few notes:
There is a container located in the museum. This is not the official geocache container! This container is part of the museum exhibit and is specifically for the muggles to use. Feel free to look through it and sign the log book, but finding the container in the museum does not count for logging this cache. The official geocache is in a different location outside of the museum.
Please do not touch anything on display in the museum!
Stage 1
Look through the museum and find the answers to these questions. Each answered question will give you a number which you will need for Stage 3.
Question A: How many large pictures are there on display of the rock art from the Jump-Across-Creek site?
Question B: How many general periods are there at the Namu site?
Question C: How many masks are on display in the “Cultural Traditions: The Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations” exhibit?
Stage 2
Look at the objects displayed in the black drawer display cases (the glass case at the top, look for the geocaching symbol) and answer these questions. To answer the questions you will need to look at the objects and read their associated information cards. On the top right corner of the information cards there is a green letter. For each question below mark these letters down as you will need them for Stage 3.
Questions:
- Which objects are made of ivory?
- Which object represents the oldest mentioned civilization in this case? (Base this answer on the specific dates mentioned on the cards.)
- Which artifacts are made of material that is formed from rapidly cooling lava?
- Which object represents the Olmec culture?
- Which artifacts are made of bone?
- Which objects were cast using a lost-wax technique?
- Which artifacts were made in the Late Woodland period?
Stage 3
In this stage you are going to convert the letters from Stage 2 into numbers using the chart below, and add them together with the numbers from Stage 1, and then add 50 (as a nod to SFU’s 50th anniversary). This final number is the combination to the cache lockbox.
(Stage 1 Numbers) + (Stage 2 Numbers) + 50 = __ __ __
This final number is the combination to the cache lockbox.
Stage 4
Again look at the objects displayed in the black drawer display cases and answer these questions. Convert the letters from the top right corner of the information cards into numbers using the same chart from above and fill in the final cache coordinates.
- i. Which artifacts include a basaltic laurel leaf shape object?
- ii. Which artifacts are from Ontario, Canada?
- iii. Which artifacts are from Rivers Inlet, BC?
- iv. Which object is from China?
Final Cache Coordinates: N 49 16.(i)(ii)6 W 122 54. (iii)(iv)5
Happy hunting and gathering!
Congratulations to buggirl1975, Little Bugger, Mi-Jo, Cache Bonus, Sweet-Marie and qman57 for their FTF in an impressive 34 minutes after the museum doors opened!