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If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's definitely after 1000BCE, and probably later than 600BCE. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize. This would be easiest if he's near the coast, as there are a few distinctive areas such as the white chalk Etretat cliffs, pink granite coast, view of the white cliffs of Dover accross the channel, etc. heck, maybe Mont San Michel is even recognizable. Maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.

If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's definitely after 1000BCE, and probably later than 800BCE. If he spots a Greek trading party (up from the South) he might know it was between 600 and 400 BCE, i.e. after the establishment of Greek presence on the Medetiranean, but prior to the disruption of trade to the north, but that might be pushing it. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize. This would be easiest if he's near the coast, as there are a few distinctive areas such as the white chalk Etretat cliffs, pink granite coast, view of the white cliffs of Dover accross the channel, etc. heck, maybe Mont San Michel is even recognizable. Maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.

If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's definitely after 1000BCE, and probably later than 600BCE. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize, maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.

If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's definitely after 1000BCE, and probably later than 600BCE. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize. This would be easiest if he's near the coast, as there are a few distinctive areas such as the white chalk Etretat cliffs, pink granite coast, view of the white cliffs of Dover accross the channel, etc. heck, maybe Mont San Michel is even recognizable. Maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.

If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's after 1000BCE. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize, maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.

If your traveler realises that he has moved in both time and space, but is still on the same planet, all of which you've already either implied or specified, he's already in a better position than someone without that knowledge.

If he can survive and remain unnoticed for two days and the skies are cloudless, he can at least determine the compass directions, whether he is in the northern or southern hemisphere and the approximate time of year using primary school level knowledge and good observation skills. It would just be tedious. Tracking the path of the sun, determining the length of day, etc. - sun sticks, counting seconds, finding the spot in the sky the stars seem to rotate around, all the fun stuff.

If he's wearing a watch or has a cellphone and it's still working, you can eliminate a lot of the tedious counting, too.

Seeing the Southern Cross in the night sky after already knowing he's in the Northern hemisphere will tell him he's somewhere prior to 400BCE, spotting any worked iron will tel him it's definitely after 1000BCE, and probably later than 600BCE. Since you specified avoiding the natives, well, not much else he can figure out easily.

For anything more detailed, you'd have to either give him specialized knowledge & skills or have him get lucky.

There are many ways to do this.

You can drop him somewhere he's been (which you already ruled out) or somewhere he has extensive knowledge of, which has a distinctive natural or archeological landmark he can recognize, maybe he recognizes a piece of coastline, distinctive rock formation or whatever because he once reasearched the area thinking to plan a vacation there, or you dropped him in the middle of the Carnac stones in the northwest or near the coast of the English Channel in the north where he can spot the cliffs of Dover. Or he was fascinated by the allied landings in Normandy in WWII and recognizes something he saw when studying maps and photos of the area.

You could make him a survivalist type who knows everything there is to know about finding your way anywhere - including in a doomsday scenario where there was polar reversal ....

He could be a history buff or just a fan of celtic history and be able to tell from the style of the hill fort spotted in the distance that it is celtic and from around 600-400BCE. Or a Julian May fan who has a fascination with the geography of France throughout history from the Pliocene up to the present. Amateur botanist or lepidopterist who recognizes a plant or butterfly native to the region, astronomy geek who can determine the date from the differences in the night sky due to precession, there are many possibilities.

Build a believable backstory for why he knows it, and you can give him a method he can use or a lucky break to do the job for him.