Thousand Year Old Campfire, or Old Morris Cave: A Continuous Use Campsite in Mammoth Cave National Park, an Excavation

Thousand Year Old Campfire is disguised as a particular sort of regionally produced archaeology journal which I used to see for sale in state parks when I was a youth.

In this solo game you are creating the results of an excavation of a cave mouth which has been a frequently used campsite for a thousand or more years. You do this backwards, building up history from the bedrock up.

You will roll a die and add dirt, building the cave floor upwards over time. At some points there will be archaeological finds 'uncovered'; you will operate a flowchart to learn about that find and how it came to be there. I am very proud of these flowcharts–some of them are, maybe, the best art I've ever made.

What you need to play:

• the game rules, of course
• a play sheet
• a six-sided die
• a pencil or pen
• a blue ballpoint pen (optional, really)
• 2-3 hours to spare, maybe more depending on how you play games