The University of Chicago has never, to our knowledge, actually employed any globe-trotting, whip-wielding heroes, and does not have anything to do with the discovery of crystal skulls that ruined a beloved franchise. But they are the fictional home for one Professor Henry Walton Jones, better known to the world as Indiana Jones. And the real-life University of Chicago has received a package addressed to Professor Jones… a package so elaborate and straight-up cool that they've enlisted the Internet to help them solve the mystery behind it.
The package arrived in a mail bin at the University's Rosenwald Hall, currently home to the econ and admissions department but once housing the departments of geology and geography-- exactly where Indiana Jones would have worked. You can see a few images of it below:
As you can tell, this looks for all the world like Abner Ravenwood's diary about his search for the Ark of the Covenant, featured prominently in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Replicas of Ravenwood's journal are sold online in a handful of places, and both the postage on the outside of the package and the text inside are photocopied-- meaning, disappointingly, no one has actually written out the entire diary by hand. The Univeristy has been collecting theories about what the package might mean on their Tumblr and thus far haven't solved the mystery, though in the spirit of the thing they say "we're pretty sure the answer isn't… SNAKES!"
Is it an awesome application sent in by a student who wants to become the next Spielberg? The beginning of an elaborate game? A misdirected eBay package? The University may never find out, but in the meantime, we all get to live in complete envy that they've received something this awesome in the mail, while I continue to get nothing but credit card offers and utility bills.
There are many, many more images of the journal at this Dropbox file if you'd like to jump in on the mystery-solving.
