Remarks in italics are not taken from explicitly-stated events in the canon material. They are my own speculations, logical inferences, gap-fillers, and extrapolations based on fragmentary references and passing mentions in the original sources.
July 1938 — Henry Jones III is born to Marion Ravenwood, unknown to Indy.[1]
November 1938 — Marion Ravenwood becomes involved with RAF pilot Colin Williams, who had been introduced to her by Indy the previous year. They marry soon, and Williams adopts the infant Henry Jones III. Perhaps thinking of his recent reconciliation with his father, Indy writes Marion a letter around this time, but it goes unanswered.[2]
Spring 1939 — After discovering an ancient ram’s head idol in Sudan, Indy encounters a group of Nazis, and is forced to give up the Idol, but makes an escape when he distracts their leader, fellow archaeologist Magnus Voller. Indy chases down a departing plane and boards it. Upon his return to the U.S., Indy receives a letter informing him that his former college professor, Charles Kingston, has disappeared. When Indy heads to San Francisco to discuss the matter with the letter’s sender, Archie Tan, he discovers that Tan has been kidnapped. Indy’s investigation into the disappearances leads him to the discovery of another artifact, the Jade Sphere. The Nazi agents (led by Voller) holding Tan demand the Sphere in exchange for Tan’s return. Indy agrees, but after Indy and Tan flee the situation, Voller discovers Indy had substituted a worthless figurine for the Sphere. Kingston had left the Sphere as a clue intended to guide Indy back to where Kingston had first discovered it — Panama. In Panama, Indy is joined by Irish photographer Maggie O’Malley, and the pair are attacked by Voller’s native mercenaries. Indy fights them off, saving a local village in the process. The villagers give him access to nearby Mayan pyramid, where Indy discovers Kingston’s journal. The journal reveals details regarding the location of the Staff of Moses. (Indy had already discovered the companion Staff of Aaron in a previous adventure five years earlier.) Obtaining further clues on a flying visit to Istanbul, Indy finally finds Kingston and the Staff in Nepal. They are ambushed by the pursuing Nazis, who abscond with Maggie (who is actually a British Intelligence agent) and Kingston on their zeppelin, the Odin. Indy is able to rescue Maggie, but Kingston is fatally shot. In a final confrontation with Voller, Indy and Maggie use the Staff to clear a path through the Red Sea, and then cause the waters to inundate the German archaeologist. The ultimate fate of the Staff is unknown.[3]
For unknown reasons, Indy is living in the faculty quarters of Barnett College around this time, rather than his own home. [4,5]
May 6, 1939 — Indy is approached at Barnett College by a mysterious 
stranger about a small key-like artifact. Indy recognizes its distinctive engraved pattern, and matches it to another artifact, a small horned idol, that the college had in storage from the 1929 Jastro Expedition in Iceland (see earlier entry). The key opens the artifact and reveals a small bead-like object. The mysterious stranger, who turns out to be SS Col. Klaus Kerner, attempts to take the gem, and in his failure to do so, leaves behind a clue leading Indy to Sophia Hapgood, a former archaeological colleague who now makes a living as a “psychic” and fortune teller, supposedly drawing her power from her collection of “Atlantean” artifacts.[5]
May 7, 1939 — While Indy is visiting with Sophia Hapgood, the apartment is raided by Kerner and his men, who make off with any artifact bearing the engraved pattern, including the idol from Barnett (but missing one worn as a necklace by Sophie), and badly wounding Indy (the fourth gunshot wound of his career by my count — his shoulder/upper arm areas on both sides must be remarkably resilient.).[5]
May 14, 1939 — Analysis by Nazi scientist Dr. Ubermann indicates the bead is a metal called orichalum, suposedly from Atlantis, and has the potential for being weaponized — a source of unlimited energy if found in sufficient quantities. While Indy is recuperating in the hospital, Sophie foils an assassination attempt on him by another Nazi agent.[5]
Late May 1939 — Out of the hospital, Indy decides to join Sophie on a trip to Iceland to investigate the Nazis’ interest in the artifacts. After discovering the frozen body of Thorskald, a fellow archaeologist clutching an idol identical to the one once in Indy’s possession, they decide to follow Dr. Jastro’s post-expedition route from Iceland to the Azores, where they find a stash of artifacts that Jastro had hidden for his private collection, including a a part of a keystone with the distinctive engraving. Following a lead in Thorskald’s notes, they end up in the Yucatan, investigating ruins that have engravings in Mayan…also in Egyptian, and an unknown script that is possibly Atlantean. A mutated skeleton in one of the crypts is wearing another engraved keystone, but this is stolen by their contact and guide, Charles Sternhart, along with their horses. Indy and Sophie make their way back to town on foot to discover an emergency cable from Brody. Brody has been investigating his own leads in Cardiz, Spain, and received a keystone from a Spanish Atlantis researcher. He arranges to meet Indy and Sophie in Leningrad to study a rare manuscript by Plato with clues to the existence and (former) location of Atlantis, only to have the manuscript stolen by Kerner. The only other copy of the manuscript known to exist…is at Barnett College.[5]
Early June 1939 — The manuscript leads them to Morocco, where local Berber diggers (supervised by the Ubermann and Kerner) are already digging for more clues and artifacts. Indy and Sophie make off with an important artifact (an “orichalum-finder”) and escape in a hydrogen balloon heading out over the Mediterranean Sea. They end up on Crete, and enter the labyrinth under Knossos, where they find Steinhart (killed by the Nazis he was working for) and collect the third and final keystone that will allow entrance into Atlantis. The information in the manuscript combined with Steinhart’s journal provide the exact underwater location of Atlantis. Indy dives down and enters the city buried under the seafloor using the three keystones. The Nazis, utilizing a U-boat and with a captive Sophie, are not far behind. Indy frees Sophie, and they use the orichalum finder to find the source of the powerful metal deep in the core of the ruined city. Sophie’s necklace begins giving her visions of the fate of Atlantis — they tried using orichalum to re-create their own living gods (“horned ones”), but it resulted in mutations and failure. Indy and Sophie are eventually captured by Ubermann and Kerner, both of whom attempt to use the Atlantean god-making device, and are both killed gruesomely by it. A series of undersea explosions destroy the remains of Atlantis for good. After their return, Sophie joins the faculty of Barnett College.[5]
Summer 1939 — Indy is assisting a French academy on a dig in the Libyan desert when he receives instructions (via Marcus Brody) to head immediately to Nepal. (His overly-loyal servant boy from Libya, Khamal, accompanies him as a stowaway.) There he meets up again with Sophie Hapgood, who has discovered scrolls that appear to be 500 years older than any known Buddhist scripture — and point the way to a divine revelation from the Buddha himself. The government of Nepal agree to fund an expedition to find the “Covenant of Buddha.” Joined by Dr. Patar Kali, Indy, Sophie, and Khamal head for Afghanistan to begin their search. Their train is attacked by Afghani bandits. Sophie is abducted and the scrolls stolen. The Afghan warlord finds Sophie too troublesome to keep, so she is offered as a prize in a multi-tribe horseback competition. A disguised Indy manages to win her, and they escape. They meet up with a small portion of their Nepalese security detail who survived the train ambush. They reveal that Japanese military intelligence is also in pursuit of the map, in the hopes of uniting Asia under their rule, and has placed a spy in the Nepalese expedition. Without the scrolls, both Indy’s team and the Japanese must rely on clues found at various Buddhist shrines, beginning with the Colossus of Bamian, the only major shrine between Afghanistan and the Far East. They beat the Japanese to the required clue (a hidden map) which leads them to an isolated city, Chanri-Ha, high in the Himalayas. After an initially hostile welcome, inhabitants (who practice a blend of Buddhism and primitive paganism) begin to revere young Khamal as their god Zan-Khan– a reincarnation of two “gods” who had conquered the city in earlier times — Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. In the Chanri-Ha archives, they discover the next place to seek the Covenant — Szechuan, China. They flee the city when it is attacked by the bandit army of the female warlord known as the Serpent Lady. The Serpent Lady insists on accompanying Indy and his party to Szechuan, where she will use the Covenant for her own purposes. After eluding a Japanese ambush, and hijacking a train, they end up captured by a rival warlord, Ch’ao the Red, near where the Covenant is supposed to be hidden. After an air raid by the Japanese on Ch’ao’s camp, Indy and co. reach the final temple, only to be confronted by Japanese general Masashi Kyojo. After a brutal round of hand-to-hand combat, Indy finds the Covenant, only to have it disintegrate into ash.[6]
Fall 1939 — Indy has hired a salvage ship and its very unscrupulous crew to sail into the
North Atlantic in search of a Viking shipwreck. After it is discovered lodged in an iceberg, a polar bear attack causes most of the crew to flee, leaving Indy and the salvage captain, Lawton, marooned on the drifting iceberg. Weeks pass. They are rescued by the French passenger liner Normandie. On board the ship, Indy discovers a conman has claimed to be his older brother, “New Jersey Jones,” and is selling phony artifacts to wealthy donors. Indy becomes intrigued by “New Jersey”’s female accomplice, Cairo, who has some kind of previous connection with Lawton. After an altercation, all four end up adrift in a Normandie lifeboat, which drifts into a portion of the North Atlantic known as the Sargasso Sea, known for its lack of wind and currents. They find a graveyard of old ships, some of them dating back centuries, trapped in the thick sargassum seaweed. They are captured by the residents of the ships’ graveyard, the Sargasso pirates, who take them to their flagship (the Freedom), and introduce them to the pirates’ leader, the Sea Witch. She allows them to stay after passing a dangerous trial — Indy must fight off a kraken. Indy is interested in investigating the Freedom’s treasure room, so he sends Cairo to distract the guards. This also gives Lawton the opportunity to assassinate the Sea Witch and take over the pirate crew. He pins the assassination on Indy. Indy is captured and sentenced to a “sweating,” a slow and torturous form of execution. He is spared when an oil lamp sets off a major fire, which destroys most of the floating city. Many of the pirates escape on the Freedom. Cairo has discovered the Sea Witch survived the assassination attempt, and they wait in the Sea Witch’s hideout until she sufficiently recovers. The Freedom gets quickly bogged down in the seaweed, but fortuitously discovers an abandoned U-boat. The U-boat chains itself to the treasure-laden Freedom and prepares to head out, but the Sea Witch reveals herself, and combat ensues. Thinking Indy, Cairo and the Sea Witch have been dealt with, Lawton steers the U-boat out of the Sargasso region, but the trio has managed to stow away on the Freedom. They are discovered and cut loose. The Sea Witch unfurls the sails and engages the sub in cannon vs. torpedo combat. The Freedom is sunk, but not before they get on the sub. The Sea Witch kills Lawton, and his mutinous crew is brought under control. Unfortunately, the treasure is lost.[7]
Late 1939 — Indy is in Egypt, assisting a “rival” colleague, Dr. Dafoe, in deciphering clues that lead to the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Azudab. The translated inscription states that the death mask of Azudab will reveal a path to the afterlife and all the treasures that follow. Indy’s father has joined them to help with the dig. The tomb is quickly found. In an attempt to cut Indy out of his share of the artifacts, Dafoe seals Indy and Henry in a small room within the tomb. Water from Henry’s dropped canteen leads them to an escape route — where they discover a dead Dafoe wearing the Azudab death mask, and leaving everything in the tomb to Jones.[8]
1940 — Indy is searching for the Golden Jaguar flute in Bolivia. He talks to local native (and friend from some time before) Tuxa, a member of the Guarani tribe. Tuxa reveals that his village has fallen ill, but a crystal skull has been brought to the village by an outsider, “Jasy Kuna,” which has healed the village in exchange for valuable offerings. Indy exposes Kuna as a fake (she’s corrupt botanist Josie Kelland) that caused the illness by secretly poisoning the villagers. The “healing” was just the poison wearing off. The skull is worthless cut glass. Indy is given his choice of the offerings Kelland had planned on escaping with, and he chooses the Golden Jaguar flute.[9]
Later that year, Indy and his guide, a young boy named Bhakdi, arrive at a hidden temple in the Kamphaeng Province in Thailand. Indy had discovered the route to the temple’s interior in some old writings, and planned a full expedition. When he caught a college intern, Clifford, spying in his files, he decided to make the trip a year earlier than planned. Clifford has arrived before them, and plans on taking all the treasure and artifacts for himself. Bhakdi snatches Indy’s notes from Clifford’s hand, allowing Indy to overpower him. With his notes in hand, Indy leaves with Bhakdi, but Clifford has a copy, and attempts to enter the temple, but he still does not have enough expertise of information to avoid the temples traps.[10]
Colin Williams, Marion Ravenwood’s husband and young Henry’s adoptive father, is killed in combat.[2]
April 1941 — Indy is working as an advisor to American archaeological expedition in Greece, excavating the tomb of the Mycenaean king Atreus, when the advancing Nazi army forces them to be evacuated courtesy of the British. Indy stays behind to prevent any artifacts left at the dig site from falling into the hands of the Nazis. Indy discovers the burial chamber was raided long ago by treasure hunters, but they overlooked a small dagger with markings that indicated it was from ancient Colchis — where Jason and the Argonauts had claimed the Golden Fleece. He escapes an advance party of Nazis with the help of pregnant young Greek woman, Omphale Kiapos, who then insists on fleeing the country with him. While investigating the harbor for a suitable boat to get them to safety, Indy is assaulted by a group of robed Turks who take the dagger. Indy and Omphale manage to steal a Nazi plane and make it to Istanbul (with some difficulties). In Istanbul, Indy meets up with antiquities dealer and Golden Fleece expert Daan Van Rooijen to find out why a group of Turks would want a dagger associated with the Argonaut myth. Van Rooijen is convinced the actual Fleece is a forgotten relic somewhere in Istanbul, and that the robed figures were members of the Cult of Hectate, who are determined to use a reconsecrated Fleece to revive the Ottoman Empire. The key to the re-consecration ceremony is the dagger discovered by Indy in the tomb of Atreus. Indy and Van Rooijen trace the Fleece to another antiquities dealer, who used it as a canvas for one of his own paintings. Van Rooijen drugs Indy and takes the Fleece for himself, but is killed by the cult before he gets far with it. Indy and Omphale follow the cult to Colchis, on the east shore of the Black Sea. Before Indy is able to confront the cult and recover the Fleece, Omphale goes into labor. The birth of the infant re-consecrates the Fleece in innocence and purity, destroying the cult and its darkness.[11]
July – August 1941 — Indy is on a dig in Peru when he discovers he is wanted for tomb-
robbing by the “Peruvian Museum Council” — which Indy knows does not exist. He eludes what appear to be Peruvian soldiers on his trail, and slips over the Ecuadorian border, but is captured. He is freed via the intervention of U.S. Army intelligence in the form of Col. Musgrave (who had sent Indy after the Ark of the Covenant five years earlier.) The arrest warrant was arranged by Musgrave and Major Nichols as a desperate means to contact Indy, whose help is needed (again) by Army Intelligence. Still bitter over his treatment by the government after recovering the Ark, Indy at first refuses, until he is told that his friend and colleague, Sir Reginald Brooksbank, was killed by Nazi agents after informing the U.S. government that he had discovered the legendary Akashic Hall of Records in Bimini. The Hall suddenly disappeared leaving behind only a small ball which makes anybody who touches it visualize a large lava pool with a giant statue over it. Nichols shows the ball and its properties to Jones, who says he recognizes the statue from the remains of Atlantis. To further prove that the Hall is real, Musgrove and Nichols show Jones a film reel of Brooksbank predicting his own inevitable death and other near-future events. Brooksbank urges them to go to the rocks known as the Three Sisters in Costa Rica to find out where the Hall will re-materialize. On a refueling stop in Panama, Indy is attacked by a Nazi assassin, indicating a security breach. He gives his military escort the slip, and makes his way to Costa Rica by way of hiring a female pilot named Bert Brodowski to fly him there. Back at the Panamanian air base, Major Nichols — a Nazi secret agent — shoots Musgrave when the two are alone together. Using the “key” sphere in conjunction with the Three Sisters, Indy discovers he must go the the “Pyramid of the Sorcerer” in the Yucatan region of Mexico to find the Hall. He convinces Bert to fly him to Mexico, but before they can leave, the Costa Rican village where they’re staying is overrun by Nichols and U.S. Army troops. In the struggle to get to Bert’s plane and make their escape, Indy loses the “key” sphere. It is recovered by Nichols. Bert and Jones land near the Pyramid of the Sorcerer in Mexico. Jones tells Bert to leave him there and fly to Mérida in case Nichols shows up. Inside the pyramid, he finds more ball objects that make him see into the past. Suddenly, an orb shows Jones a vision of Nichols standing outside the pyramid with an automatic pointed at Bert’s head. Jones moves to leave, but stops when Reginald Brooksbank shows up. Brooksbank tells Jones that he had faked his death because Nichols had told him that Musgrove was a Nazi spy. Jones informs Brooksbank that the mole was actually Nichols. However, the mole himself shows up with an automatic braced against the side of Bert’s head and her wrists tied. Jones says he saw the future of the battle, predicting Nichols’ defeat and death in the jungle. Jones moves to the side to avoid Nichols’ gunshot and cracks his whip at the weapon, causing Nichols to loosen both hands. Brooksbank gets hit by a bullet during the ensuing fight and Nichols runs into the Hall to avoid his fate, but the orbs explode when he touches too many at the same time. Two days after the incident, Musgrove recovers from his gunshot wound and offers Indy a position in Army Intelligence. Indy promises to think about it.[12]
August 1941 — In southern Mexico, Indy agrees to aid Musgrove and Army Intelligence investigate the possibility that after losing the Ark of the Covenant, Hitler is still searching the world for ancient weapons that are able to harness unknown magical forces. Bert stays on as his partner. Unsure where to begin, they head for some Mayan pyramids hoping for inspiration. On the way, the encounter a jaguar, who, instead of attacking them, attacks the person who had been following them. Searching his body, they discover he was in the employ of a Nazi named Mephisto, who instructed him to follow Indy and report his movements. Exploring the interior of one of the pyramids, Indy and his guide Peku discover an odd inscription — a mix of Mayan and Egyptian glyphs — and indications that the area had recently been explored by Germans. Still not sure what he is looking for (but knowing the Nazis have a head start), Indy takes his notes on the inscription to his father in New York. Henry says the inscription is evidence of some kind of crossover between Mayan, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures, but he is unable to provide further translation. He points Indy to the work of ancient Greek statesman Solon, assumed to be lost, but actually residing in the Vatican’s secret library. Calling in some favors, Indy is granted access to the Vatican (posing as a journalist), but must slip into the library covertly. With the assistance of a sympathetic scholarly priest, Indy finds the scroll he’s looking for and takes it. He is pursued out of the Vatican and into the streets of Rome by both the Italian blackshirts and the Nazi SS led by Mephisto himself. In the ensuing street panic, Indy escapes on a mule-drawn ice wagon, but ends up in hand-to-hand combat with Mephisto. The SS officer ends up in the Tiber, electrocuted by his electronic prosthetic arm. Solon’s translation of the inscription leads Indy and Bert (and two Italian orphans at Bert’s insistence) to Mount Sinai on board a fishing boat. They arrive at the foot of Mount Sinai via camel. The inscriptions received their final level of deciphering from a friendly imam known to Indy. The scroll is concerned with the “Bread of the Gods” — actually a complex chemical compound with “inter-dimensional” properties used by ancient people around the world (it aided in the building of various cultures’ pyramids). The formula was guarded by the Knights of the Templar, but lost when that Order was destroyed. Some of it remained at the peak of Mount Sinai, and now Indy must get to it before the Nazis do. They discover that Mephisto survived his dunking in the Tiber, and the Nazis have a head start. While Indy is trying to sneak past the Nazi camp to get to the top of the mountain, Bert and the orphans are captured. Indy enters the interior of the mountain through an ancient Egyptian Temple of Hathor, and discovers a massive hall where an incantation ceremony is taking place to gain entry to an inner chamber. Bert and the orphans are to be the next “volunteers” to try to gain entry — or get pulverized by massive stone statues when the incantation fails (as it seems to be doing.) Indy, thanks to his translated scroll, has the correct way to enter and offers to trade it for Bert and the children. When the portal opens, Indy is forced through to test the way, soon followed by Mephisto and several SS troopers. As they gather the materials to create the chemical “Bread,” Indy escapes using a smuggled hand grenade. Mephisto and the SS are dispatched by the temple’s security system. Bert and Indy part ways at Port Said. Bert will be traveling with the children (whose parents have been located by Musgrove — they have been granted asylum as anti-Fascists in the U.S.) Indy receives a new assignment in Japan, and it is revealed Mephisto survived the ordeal in the temple.[13, 14]
July 1942 – July 1943 — The Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA) recruits Indy into wartime service as an intelligence operative, based on his past experience in the First World War and his work with Army Intelligence in the early ‘30s and more recently. He is under the command of U.S. Army General Robert Ross, and is paired with a British MI6 operative, George “Mac” McHale. The duo perform twenty or so undercover missions during this period, mostly in Europe but some in the Pacific. These include the theft of an Enigma coding machine from Berlin, and a tense armed stand-off in Flensburg.[14] Indy credits Mac with saving his life at least once.[2]
August 1943 — Indy and Mac are on a sabbatical from intelligence work, but have decided to investigate stories
of a massive black pearl — the “Heart of Darkness” — which is imbued with ritualistic power and is supposed to be located on the “Isle of the Dead” near Haiti. Indy and Mac arrive in Haiti and hire a young woman, Marie Arnoux, to be their guide. Their arrival is noted by various military intelligence operatives in the area, such as Nazi officer Edwin Gruber, Japanese officer Yamada Hajime…and a local Voudoun sorcerer called Boukman. Boukman awaits their arrival on the island with a group of zombi, some actually the living dead, some just under the influence of a powerful potion. Yamada’s small group arrives there ahead of them by private plane. Indy, Mac, and Marie arrive by boat on the densely forested island unaware they are being scrutinized by two hostile parties. (Soon to be three as Gruber is quickly en route with a detachment of SS.) The tiny village they stay at before beginning their trek into the island’s interior comes under attack by Boukman’s zombi, who are resistant to gunfire. The attack is witnessed by the Japanese and German agents, confirming their belief that a powerful potion is theirs for the taking to beef up their respective armies. The attack is partially repelled by Marie, who appears to be in a trance, and later explains that the zombis had not come to kill them, but to take them to Boukman. Marie is a Voudoun priestess, and Boukman is a relative of hers. Indy, Mac, Marie, and a team of guides and porters set off. Both the Germans and Japanese prepare to follow them, believing they are here for the same thing they are and will unknowingly lead them to it. Indy’s group reaches the clearing where they believe the Heart of Darkness to be, and successfully dig it up, unleashing a blast of powerful magic. All parties flee the area. Boukman decides to eliminate the competition first, sending his undead slaves to decimate the German and Japanese parties. Only Gruber, Yamada, and a few others survive, and they decide to team up for safety. The next attack is on Indy’s party, and it eliminates everyone but Mac, Indy, and Marie. After surviving a tropical storm and being swept along by an underground river, Marie is separated from the other two and captured by Boukman. Before long, Indy, Mac, Marie, Gruber, Yamada, and the pearl are all in Boukman’s possession — and all are marked for sacrifice so Boukman can harness the power of the pearl and create an entire army of undead. They manage to disrupt the sacrifice ceremony, and Marie uses the pearl’s power to kill Boukman and allow them all to escape. Gruber and Yamada have a box containing Boukman’s potion. Gruber kills Yamada, and is himself killed by a zombi operating his escape boat. (The box falls into the sea.) Marie remains on the island. Indy and Mac leave with the pearl itself.[15]
September 1943 – Late 1944 — Indy and Mac return to service, completing a dozen or so more missions. Indy ends his wartime service as a highly-decorated Colonel in the Army Reserve, and forms a close friendship with his commanding officer, General Ross.[2]
Mid-March 1945 — On a dig to investigate burial mound carvings near New Grange, Ireland, Indy receives a letter from his father. Dr. Henry Jones had been lecturing at the annual Grail Lore Conference in Glastonbury, England, when he was approached by a group of “Nederlanders” interested in the Spear of Longinus, which supposedly pierced the side of Christ on the cross and was taken to England by the missionary Joseph of Arimathea. Dr. Jones suspects the Nederlanders are Nazis hoping the power of the spear will boost their failing war effort, and wants Indy’s help to find it before they do. The owner of the inn where Indy is staying is a “blueshirt” (Nazi sympathizer), and overhears Indy reading part of the letter aloud. He radios SS Colonel Dieterhoffmann (who was indeed one of the “Nederlander” party inquiring about the spear). Indy escapes the blueshirts and flees to England with his young Irish assistant Brendan O’Neal. Indy meets his father in Glastonbury, where they speculate about the location of the spear and its shaft. Some legends say the shaft was Joseph of Arimathea’s staff, which took root as one of the thorn trees growing on Wearyall Hill. Hoping to get more information about the spearhead’s location, Henry writes a note luring the youngest member of the Nederlander group, Seigfried, to an isolated spot. Both the “Nederlanders” and Indy’s group, anticipating trouble, converge on the spot. The Nazis already have the spearhead (acquired for them by Otto Nehrkorn, an assistant curator at the Nuremberg museum), and plan to use it to restore the German race to power. Seig is Dieterhoffmann’s son and has been raised “pure” to ensure his ability to wield the spear. The imminent execution of Indy’s group is thwarted by a local botanist, Edwina Cheltingham, leading a group of schoolgirls on a tour of Glastonbury Tor. In the ensuing scuffle, the spearhead breaks in two. One half ends up with Seig, and the other with O’Neal. As Indy’s party make their escape into Wales (with the driving help of one of Cheltingham’s students, Rebecca Stein), a sympathetic Cheltingham reveals that the Nazis have taken wood from the wrong thorn tree, and slips O’Neal a spring from the true one. Dieterhoffmann and his henchman catch up with them. Henry and Rebecca are taken as hostages, O’Neal escapes, and Indy is dropped in a lake tied to a rock. At the bottom of the lake, there is a massive cache of ancient Celtic weapons. Indy uses one of the spearheads to cut his bonds, then takes it with him. He meets up with O’Neal and they attempt to recover Henry and Rebecca from Dieterhoffmann as their ferry leaves Holyhead. They succeed in getting back Henry, and in swapping Dieterhoffmann’s half of the spearhead with the Celtic one from the lake, but fail to rescue Rebecca. Indy is guided back to Ireland by the spearhead itself.[16]
March 21, 1945 — Indy rescues Rebecca, and they end up inside the burial mound with the Nazis right behind them. The spear is reassembled, and it flies around the chamber in a burst of spiritual power that dispatches most of the Nazis. The “pure” Seig is so overcome with seeing the spear in action, he collapses and dies in an ecstatic religious fit.[16]
Nehrkorn absconds with the spearhead back to Nuremberg, where it is recovered at the end of the war by American forces.[16]
Summer 1945 — Indy spends the summer in Wales, attempting to find the submerged cache of ancient Celtic weapons, but is unsuccessful.[16]
Early 1947 — Indy is in East Berlin at the invitation of the Soviet government to evaluate
artifacts at a medieval monastery. Impatient and suspicious of Soviet bureaucracy, he breaks into the monastery to look for himself, and after a brief detention by Soviet authorities, goes back to West Berlin with a scroll he managed to smuggle away from the monastery. The ancient scroll described a Philosopher’s Stone (one of which Indy has already dealt with, see previous entry), and later coded annotations by Albertus Magnus, a 13th century monk and alleged alchemist. Indy and Brody decode the notes, and discover that Magnus had possession of an actual Stone, but fearing its power would be misused, broke it into three parts and his those parts in churches in Kiev, Ireland, and Tibet. Indy recovers the portion from Kiev, but not without being captured again by the Soviets. They let him go, in the hopes of using him as bait to lure ex-Nazi Dr. Matthias Jaeger after him. Indy also recovers the portion in Ireland, and becomes aware he is being trailed by Dr. Jaeger’s assistant, Dunkelvolk. In a phone conversation with Brody, Indy learns that Jaeger is interested in the power of the Stone for re-animating the dead — creating, perhaps, an army of Nazi undead. Indy hurries to Tibet to acquire the final portion of the stone. After a series of strange visions and receiving a cryptic prophecy from a Tibetan monk, Indy recovers the third stone and heads back to Berlin, where he discovers Brody is being held by Soviet security officer Nadia Kirov and her men. They take the Philosopher’s Stone segments, but Nadia is betrayed by her second-in-command, who is working for Dunkelvolk. Indy forms an uneasy alliance with Nadia as they secretly follow the them on a train bound for Jaeger’s base in Koblenz. The horribly-disfigured Jaeger forces Indy and Nadia to observe the ceremony of the Iron Phoenix, where he uses the power of the re-combined Philosopher’s Stone to begin reanimating dead Nazi officers. Indy disrupts the ceremony, and the power of the Stone kills Jaeger and his undead army.[17]
Early July, 1947 — Indy and several other scientists and scholars are driven under heavy security to an Air Force facility in the Nevada desert to examine the remains of a crashed “UFO” brought in from Roswell, New Mexico. Indy can come to no conclusion based on what he’s given to examine, and is never told the full story.[2]
Fall 1947 — Indy’s father has come out of retirement to cover Indy’s classes during the fall semester[18] while Indy is on a dig in one of his usual haunts, the Four Corners area of the American southwest. Sophia Hapgood, now an agent in the newly-formed CIA, visits him there. She offers him an investigative job: discover why the Soviets are excavating areas around the ruins of ancient Babylon in central Iraq. Teaming with another CIA agent, Simon Turner, Indy finds out that Soviet physicist Dr. Gennadi Volodnikov is trying to find evidence of the Babylonian god Marduk. Evidently, the fabled Tower of Babel was actually a storage area for a massively powerful “Infernal Machine” built by Marduk worshipers. Other frightened Babylonians tore the tower down, and the machine was split into four parts, each spirited away to a different part of the world. Indy must recover the parts before the Soviets do, leading him to the mountains of Kazakhstan, a volcano in the Philippines, a valley in central Mexico, and a tomb in the Sudan wastelands. He turns the machine parts over to the CIA just ahead of having them taken by Volodnikov. The Soviet scientist warns Indy that the reassembled machine would be incredibly dangerous to whoever activated it. Indy attempts to rescue Sophia and Turner from the effects of the machine in Room of the Tablets in Babylon, but only succeeds in freeing Sophia after a face-to-face confrontation with Marduk.[19]
Winter 1950 — Indy recovers a Native American peace pipe from a group of artifact thieves. He and his friend, Grey Cloud, are pursued by the criminals through the snowy back roads of rural Wyoming. They take temporary refuge in an an abandoned cabin. When the criminals catch up to them, Indy drops a massive pile of loosened snow on them by blasting a note on an old soprano saxophone he found in the cabin, and they make their final escape.[20]
Indiana Jones, 1950
1951 — Henry Jones, Sr. dies[1]
1952 — Marcus Brody dies.[1]
1. Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novelization
3. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings video game
4. Indy’s house in Crystal Skull is a different house than the one seen in Raiders. Perhaps he was in the middle of a move in 1939? (Personally, I don’t think so. His 1957 house is much grander than his 1936 house, causing me to think he acquired it with an inheritance left by his father, who died in 1951 and was said to be quite wealthy.) Most likely theory — he was just crashing there after a late night in his office.
5. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
6. Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient
7. Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates
8. Facing Death! mini-comic
9. Skull Duggery! mini-comic
10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Yearning mini-comic
11. Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece
12. Indiana Jones and the Pyramid of the Sorcerer
13. Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai
14. Further adventures were planned with Mephisto as the primary villain, but this particular Y.A. book series was cancelled after only two installments.
15. Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead
16. Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny
17. Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix
18. Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix game manual
19. Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
20. The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Ch. 20: “Mystery of the Blues”
Holy Bee of Ephesus 