During the excavation of an ancient Babylonian ziggurat in 1970, a Harvard University archeological expedition encounters an anomalous artifact: a fantastically ornate urn with a puzzling inscription that says it contains the ashes of the ancient Hindu god Purusha, from whose body the Universe was created. In spite of how carefully the dazzling artifact had been concealed in the innermost cell of the ziggurat, the archeologists are wary of their find, because everything about it is wrong for its location: the several languages engraved upon it, the landscape of the world depicted on its surface, and the odd collection of gods that are referenced. Most curious of all is that the urn, which is in pristine condition, is sealed with a technology far beyond the capabilities of ancient Sumeria. Fearing a hoax, the head of the archeological team manages to smuggle the urn past Iraqi customs, with the intention of concealing it in the basement of his home near the Harvard campus until he can determine its origins. But, on one fateful day, curiosity gets the better of him and he opens the urn. Fifty years later, the archaeologist's son, a Nobel Prize-winning astronomer, is confronted by the terrible consequences of his father's curiosity.
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