Dawn of Civilizations

The Temporal Witnesses, Volume 1

By: Ricardo Gomez

Narrated by: Wendy Baran

The Temporal Witnesses Volume 1: Dawn of Civilizations

When your school erases history, sometimes you have to go back and witness it yourself.

Sixteen-year-old Cuchu Ramirez is tired of hearing that "real civilization" started in Europe. Fifteen-year-old Matias Kim thinks history is just dead people's problems. But when their Seattle high school bans archaeology textbooks for promoting "anti-American narratives," these unlikely allies discover something that changes everything: the power to travel back in time.

Their first journey hurls them 3,500 years into the past, where they witness the Dawn of Civilizations—and everything they've been taught crumbles around them.

Three Ancient Cities. Three Shocking Truths. 48 Hours to Survive.

CARAL, PERU (3500 BCE): In the oldest city in the Americas, Cuchu and Matias discover sophisticated urban planning, ceremonial pyramids, and a peaceful society that thrived while Europe was still in the Stone Age. No weapons. No warfare. Just brilliant engineering and community cooperation that challenges everything their textbooks claim about "primitive" ancient peoples.

POVERTY POINT, LOUISIANA (3400 BCE): Massive earthworks stretch across the landscape—older than Stonehenge, more complex than anything in contemporary Europe. They watch thousands of people coordinate continental trade networks, moving materials across thousands of miles with precision that rivals modern logistics.

URUK, MESOPOTAMIA (3200 BCE): In the world's first known city, they witness the birth of writing through the eyes of temple workers and scribes, understanding how human civilization documented itself for the first time. But this isn't the "cradle of civilization" their teachers described—it's one flowering among many.

But ancient wonders aren't their only problem.

©2025 Ricardo Gomez (P)2026 Ricardo Gomez