The Ancients: A Novel of Time Travel

Six months ago, Colonel Barton Stauffer retired from activity duty to spend more time with his family. Now he has been reactivated and assigned to lead a team of time travelers in a top-secret research facility buried deep beneath Carlisle Barracks to survey the ancient prehistoric past stretching into antediluvian times, a period for which there are no written records. Our understanding of this time period is based entirely on conjecture, flavored by legend, mythology, oral history, and misunderstood archaeological activity—and Stauffer’s team is out to find hard facts.

The history of humanity is inextricably intertwined with our religious experience and tradition. What lies hidden or lost in the prehistoric past shrouds the truth about man’s ancient origins, but extensive cities built of intricately carved monolithic stones prove the existence of early and extraordinarily advanced technologies. As Stauffer leads his team in search of proof of the great flood and of the legendary Hall of Records, hostile forces attempt to obliterate all evidence of humankind’s ancient past, and only Stauffer and his team can stop them.

The Ancients is the third book in the Barton Stauffer time travel trilogy, which began with Gettysburg Revisited and History Quest. In this third volume, Stauffer leads an elite team of time travelers and antiquarians who are tasked with protecting humanity’s ancient historical record and keeping the repository of antediluvian artifacts of humanity’s mysterious past safe from those who wish to destroy them, bringing to a dramatic conclusion the saga of mankind’s exploration of the past using temporal technology.

Shand Stringham’s last assignment on active duty as a colonel in the US Army was serving on the faculty of the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, where he taught national security and strategy. He now teaches college classes on leadership and management. He and his family reside in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.