I was, as always when we weren't talking shop or history, at a loss for words. Albert, with a little smirk on his face I'd get him for later, shared, “She did it herself, after an interesting sleepwalking incident following another nightmare.”
She ruffled my hair, flexing her fingers to give it some body as she just kept on smiling. “It really is adorable. I can clean it up for you before you go back to the excavation if you like. I've four younger brothers, and I cut all their hair.”
I held up the case awkwardly. We had work to do, and embarrassing me to death was not conducive to those ends. She took it from me and led us into her lab. Sara, her grad student, looked up from where she was prepping some plaster to get an impression of a carved stone section of hieroglyphs, likely from the new chamber found in the tomb of Hatshepsut recently. She absently waved at us.
Doc called out in Arabic, “Sara when you're done there, can you go check with the front desk to see if they were aware that some American group was trying to procure some relics with some dubious paperwork?” The girl nodded and went back to her casting.
Then the ebony haired woman smiled at us and said, “Let's take a look at these again shall we? And why was it you thought something was inside these, Aya?”
Good, shop talk, this I could do without becoming a tongue-tied schoolgirl around her, “Well Doctor...”
She gave me an expectant look, and I sighed and set my hat down on the table and picked up an idol as I said, “Olivia.” I could feel my cheeks and the tips of my ears heating. “The inscriptions don't make much sense, and without context, the meaning behind them can be interpreted in many ways. But...”
I arranged the idols so that the one with the Anubis head looking left was on the left, the one looking forward was in the center, and the one looking right to the right. I was a bit frustrated at the damage to the middle one, so part of the message was lost.
I smiled as Albert excitedly said, “Arranged this way they hold a message. Well, we think it is a message. Others have disputed Aya's interpretation, but I have more faith in her grasp of linguistics than anyone else.”
She cocked an eyebrow and examined the inscriptions on the stone figures, she nodded and said to my pleasant surprise, “That which is locked inside...” She huffed in exasperation and growled out, “Some of it is broken off here. But the rest says something about being given to the umm... sacrifice of Anubis? And the cursed shall gain or reap... something evil.”
I shook my head and thought of what I have pieced together after studying thousands of pictures from excavations and tombs and the great pyramids. Using contextual clues to find alternate interpretations of some of the symbols when used in conjunction with each other to come up with more likely meanings that would change entire passages of the pictorial scripts. This was the basis of my thesis and subsequent book.
I offered, “I believe this is, 'that which is stored inside,' not 'locked inside,' a subtle difference. And the rest refers to 'death's mistress' of Anubis, not 'sacrifice.' I got this from the sarcophagi of the mistresses of King Amenhotep that were unearthed three years back. When we look at the two symbols we had taken to mean sacrifice when arranged like this instead of the other way around, I determined that this is the symbol for death, not sacrifice. So the traditional script shows the two symbols lending meaning to the second as 'embrace.' So death's embrace we took to mean sacrifice. But as with many symbols, by simply moving it to behind the other it can change subtly to 'embraced'...”
I hesitated when Albert sighed out, “Aya, please.”
I looked over to see Olivia looking at me in rapt attention, and I had to remember to breathe again as she said, “No it is alright Professor, this is fascinating.” She smiled, and I looked down, then to the idols to try to reboot my brain. Her smile should be registered as a lethal weapon.
I inhaled and looked up sheepishly and said, “In this configuration, it is the 'embraced of death,' or death's mistress when we see the 'embraced' symbol alone on the sarcophagi of the pharaoh's mistresses. And the rest says that the mistress will receive the gift inside to banish the wicked.”
She cocked her head and looked at the symbols with great interest, then I shared, “When I first arrived at the dig, and the idols were brought to me, I was holding them when I was shocked. I almost dropped them, and I found I was bleeding like I had been pricked.”
I looked at my hand in memory then said, “I think there are salts inside that reacted with the gold inlay, creating a battery, or some sort of metals inside that gathered a static charge in the dry air. And I got a hell of a discharge from them. I probably cut my finger on the rough stones when I was fighting not to drop them. We were hoping...”
She was already ahead of me, nodding her head as she smirked a little, finishing for me, “If I could x-ray them to see what if anything is stored inside.”
I nodded and realized her grad student had already left when I was babbling about interpretations, good lord, she was probably rolling her eyes somewhere now. Olivia said as she looked at the huge digital display on the wall that doubled as a virtual whiteboard, “Looks like there is an opening now, the students in the restoration class have use of the x-ray machine in forty minutes.”
She looked between us with what could only be mischief in her dark eyes. “Shall we go see what secrets these little darlings hold?”
I was nodding like a fool, which made her smile brighter, and she carefully placed the idols back in the case, and we followed her swaying hips down the hall to the x-ray lab. I looked up from her swaying hips when Albert nudged my ribs. Oh god, he caught me drooling, I was going to die.
Chapter 4 – Serial Killer
Thirty minutes later, we were all saying in unison, “Huh.”
We looked at the x-rays, and CT scans on the monitors. The idols were apparently solid carved limestone with gold inlays, no inner compartments and nothing hidden inside. I asked nobody in particular, “Then how did I get that big jolt?” I looked at my hand, and where I had been punctured, it had long since healed.
Olivia looked just as confused, then asked as she started turning each idol over in her hands, closely examining them. “You said one cut you?”
I nodded and supplied, “It felt like I had been stabbed, but we couldn't find any sharp edges, it was likely just the rough surface.”
Albert added, “I had just about had a cardiovascular event when she bobbled them in the air.”
I smiled at the old man, shaking my head as I told him, “Heart attack, Prof. Cardiovascular event? Nobody talks like that.”
The traitorous model for Hot Doctors Monthly pointed out with a wry grin, “Actually Aya, that is the proper term for...”
Feeling a little brave I mumbled out, “I thought you weren't that kind of doctor.”
She barked out a single peal of laughter and wrapped an arm around my shoulder to give me a quick hug that had me trying to ignore the slight scent of orchids she always had about her. “You're so very entertaining.”
Albert just looked at me smugly. What was this? Pick on Aya day or something? Really, people should tell me these things so I can put them in my day planner and not get out of bed on those days. I took a quick half step away from the alluring woman to try to pull my wits about me. My hand hesitated half way to my hair to push its mass back over my shoulder when I remembered I had lopped it all off.
She looked almost offended I had moved away, then turned her attention back to the idols as she picked one back up. “Did you get blood on them?”
The heat went out of my cheeks at her suddenly professional demeanor. “Yes.” Dear lord, limestone is porous. I'd stained it hadn't I? I should have used latex gloves while handling them. I know better.
She set the idol down and examined the other two carefully. “There's no staining... hmm. Maybe this isn't limestone? If you leave one, I'll have it tested.”
I mumbled again, “Leave one? We were leaving them here
with the other pieces from the dig once we checked into the possibility they were hollow vessels. I've got impressions of all the carvings and 360 photos of them to see if I can suss anything else out.”
She exchanged a look with Albert and then said to me as she shook her head, “Normally we would be delighted to add them to the collection, but with shifty wankers like that Commander Xerxes; fake name if I ever heard one; sniffing around, I think they'd be safer with you.”
Then she winked almost playfully. “I'm sure I can accidentally mislabel the one I keep for a bit, just to keep the tosser off my back.” She reached out and took the center idol and shared, “This one already has some damage to it so any scrapings I take from those areas for testing won't compromise the piece any more than it is.”
I almost said she was a wicked woman, but for some reason, that word was taking on a different meaning for me lately... only the negative connotations of it. Albert voiced my gratitude for me, “We like the way you think. These pieces are important, and need to be studied and shared with everyone to help understand the rich culture and people of ancient Kemet and the Nile region.”
I started to nod but found myself unable to move once more when Olivia ran a hand through my hair again as the Professor carefully packed the two idols back away in my padded case. She said with a bit of a lilt, “Now let's see what we can do about cleaning up this new cute style of yours, shall we Aya?”
Then Albert chuckled and said, “Well I for one need some coffee or tea in me while you ladies go about it.”
What? The traitor was leaving me alone with the Doc? He knows I can't talk to her. He teases me endlessly about it.
It sort of surprised me the first time he realized my attraction to her. Being of an older generation, I wouldn't have thought he'd understand and be so accepting of my sexuality, but I guess being an archeologist, he has a different view of culture and human interactions. There have been entire settlements in many places in the ancient world where same-sex... dear lord, she's dragging me toward her office by the hand, what was I saying?
She sat me down on a stool and swatted my hands away from my hair when I absently reached for it. I heard a snicker from Sara, just great, the peanut gallery had returned while we were out.
Olivia moved over to a cabinet below a counter and pulled out some scissors, then took a comb out of a purse hanging on the coat hook by the door, before she descended upon me with a crooked smirk. Help me?
I closed my eyes a moment and stifled a moan as she ran her fingers through my hair over and over as she contemplated her angle of attack. “I just love the texture of your hair, Aya, it's so silky. Not at all what I would expect from someone hanging out in the desert.”
Then she gave me an encouraging smile. I'm sure I had a look of terror on my face as she started trimming and layering the butchered ends. Sara said, “Oh, that is cute isn't it?” To her faculty advisor in Arabic.
I muttered to her in English, “You do know I speak fluent Arabic don't you, Sara?”
She responded in kind with amusement in her tone, “Of course I do.” The shameless girl.
I sat there just breathing in orchids, and musk, and sweat... sweat? I almost panicked. Dear lord, I hadn't had a chance to shower in the locker rooms yet. I shrank in my seat, and she placed a hot hand on my back to make me sit up straight again.
After a couple minutes, she took a step back to admire her work, asking, “What do you think, Sara?”
The traitorous grad student said with a bubbly tone, “Oh, that's adorable.”
“Isn't it just?”
My cheeks were on fire as I squeaked, grabbed an artifact specimen tray from the counter beside me, and looked at my reflection in the polished steel surface. I blinked, knowing why it was called a Cleopatra cut now, and... it really was sort of cute.
I smiled up at her avoiding her eyes, or I'd have forgotten how to breathe again. I was such a hopeless case. She prompted, “You like?”
I nodded. “I like. Thank you.”
She squeezed my shoulders and said, “Brilliant. Now, why don't you get a shower and you can show your gratitude by buying a girl lunch in the cafeteria.”
I mumbled, “I thought you ate free here.”
Sara looked up from what she was doing and stared at the ceiling like she could see the sky, and said a prayer about saving her from dense people before she said to me in exasperation, “Just say yes. Are you slow or something Professor?”
Ok, now I was going to die then and there. Then I froze, realizing she said to take a shower first, and looked up at Olivia, trying hard not to lift my arm to smell my pit, asking sheepishly, “That bad huh?”
She chuckled, and it made me smile even though it was me she was laughing at. She made a show of scrunching her nose then pinching it, “You smell like an archaeologist back from a dig.”
I started, “I am an arch... oh, right. Ok.”
Then I said to my hands as I grabbed my hat from the counter, “See you in the cafeteria then.” I scurried out into the corridor, smashing the hat onto my head and almost jogged toward the locker rooms.
As I escaped, I heard one of the evil women saying in Arabic, “The bashful ones are always so cute.” I sighed at how awkward I was. I wish I could be more assertive like I was when I was working.
After a quick shower, which felt sinfully good with hot water for a change, I felt more human, being clean. That's when I found how much easier it was to tend shorter hair. I should have done this long before.
Then I went in search of Olivia, remembering to text Albert to let him know where we were. He sent back, with impeccable punctuation and diction, that he had some colleagues he needed to confer with here at the University and would catch up with me later. But what the hell did the two winking emojis mean? He knew the Doc didn't look at people like me in that way. He was a shameless tease.
Olivia was by a wall in the large cafeteria, talking with colleagues of her own when she saw me approaching. She straightened from where she was leaning against the wall and smiled at me. Turning to the others, she excused herself as I approached and stepped up to me.
Then she hugged my arm to her as she dragged me toward the growing line of people at the serving counters while she chirped, “I thought you had drowned, or were trying to get out of our date.”
My cheeks heated at her choice of words. Date? If only.
I think she may have sensed my awkwardness as we ate because she got me talking about my work. She pressed me on how I came about some of my hypothesis on the linguistic structure which had a lot of my contemporaries either flummoxed at how my theories changed the context of some of the most commonly accepted interpretations of ancient texts or discounting my work, no matter how many practical examples validated it.
I was very animated as I delved deep into how much we took for granted in old translations, with assumptions that they were the most likely with such primitive civilizations. That's where I found fault. It seemed that every structure we didn't understand had to be some sort of place of worship, or sacrificial altar or shrine to ancient gods.
I thought we were sort of arrogant as modern researchers to think we were more intelligent or more enlightened than ancient cultures were. So we actively applied a superstitious naivety to everything as we sought to understand what we unearthed so that it fit in that template.
I found through my research that by not taking anything for granted, and looking for patterns and hard examples to support any contextual application of interpretations instead of assumptions, that a different picture was painted of the civilizations of the past. Like modern man, each culture tried to understand the purpose of life and man's place in it. Things we attributed to worship took on a different meaning with this new light and became more mundane items. Worship halls became bazaars, and animal sacrifice altars became butcher blocks for meat mongers in those markets.
This isn't saying that they didn't attribute a lot of
the more philosophical or unanswerable questions of self and spirituality to named or unnamed gods. There was that. And temples to them were erected, like the Anubis temple we were unearthing. But they were more representational than practical, and I don't believe people worshiped at the altars more than questioned their own mortality. Just like us.
And like us, there were certain sects which were more devout than others, and some more fanatical, even some atheists. My theories on the varying evolution of language within regions was becoming more and more apparent the more that was unearthed. It was readily apparent here in the Nile region, where the more southern finds, hundreds of miles from the Valley of the Kings, that the same glyphs had varying definitions in each region. Just like modern languages have subtly different dialects.
It is more apparent the farther one gets from the source. Good examples are the different dialects of Spanish between Spain and Mexico for example, or even England and the United States. In these examples, the root of the language is intact enough that someone from either region can still understand the other even with the differences.
I was saying, “We would be amiss if we just assumed that a particular sequence of glyphs mean the same thing in settlements that are separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles. That just increases the probability of misinterpretations, and...”
I paused. Olivia was watching me with rapt fascination, her head propped up cutely on her fists, her elbows on the table as she just beamed a smile at me. I swallowed and looked at my meal which was half eaten as I moved my vegetables around on my plate with my fork to represent the separation of micro-cultures in a linguistic map of the region.
“I'm sorry, I'm just going on about...”
She shook her head and reached out to take my free hand. “No, not at all. I love how passionate you are about your work. And it is the only time I can get you to speak freely to me, and lets me see the real Aya who hides away in that awkward shell of bashful insecurity.”
Anubis Page 3
