Page 25 of Bands and Buckles by Sinn Spezialuhren

hot sand and ancient graves a watch goes through hell ­ sinn 756 s endurance test northern nigeria november to december 2003 dr detlef gronenborn prehistorian and archaeologist at the roman germanic central museum in mainz completes excavations on burial mounds from the 13th century his task is to measure and perform block recovery on parts of the burial ground his other task is to perform an endurance test on sinn model 756 discovering how sinn s innovative technologies perform under extreme conditions and rough use the sun burns down mercilessly from the african sky the thermometer shows 45 degrees celsius with tendency toward rising this wasteland near the nigerian capital abuja is certainly not one of the destinations recommended by travel guides this piece of earth is not only a wasteland it is also infernally hot it helps little to have read the following in clever books beforehand nigeria has a tropically humid climate in the south and a desert climate in the north with higher temperatures and little rain the harmattan brings dry hot air with it from the sahara average temperatures all year round are between 23 and 32 degrees in the south and up to 50 degrees celsius in the north the best time to travel is from october to march fanstastic dr gronenborn wipes the mixture of sweat and dust from his forehead and reaches for the water bottle long drinks calm his burning throat tediously he rises from his crouched position and stretches his aching back he looks at his watch it s now been five hours that he has squatted in the dry dusty hot earth five hours of intense heat and paralyzing silence surrounding him not even flies share the solitude of northern nigeria with him his presence there at the best time to travel helps him little with the work he needs to do for a number of years already he has been following the footsteps of human history steps often leading him to lonely hot and sometimes even life-threatening locations dr gronenborn looks over the burned earth one of his workplaces is this burial ground somewhere in the most inhospitable and hottest part of the country on the niger one really needs to be a passionate archaeologist to undergo such hardship willingly dr detlef gronenborn is one ­ and one of the most reputable of his kind as well he has participated in many archaeological projects and he has traveled halfway around the world ­ from south africa and zimbabwe to cameroon smolensk 144

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