by Linda Mooney
Excavation
“Cave-in! Cave-in! Run! We have a cave-in!”
Dr. Chet Kelling heard the warning and immediately beat a hasty retreat back through the narrow depression, to higher ground. He felt the earth rumble beneath his feet as dirt and sand flew upward, filling the air with dust and debris. He barely made it back behind the retaining wall before the ground where he’d been walking shuddered and collapsed as if a trap door had been released.
Holding his sleeved arm over his nose and mouth to keep from inhaling the detritus still floating around, he eyed the aftermath. It didn’t look too bad, but looks could be very deceiving, especially when it came to excavations. He walked over to where his associate stood nearby, also checking out the damage.
“Any idea what caused it?”
Dr. Irmine Causeway shook his head. Kelling noticed the man’s eyes were red and watery from the aftereffects, and figured his must look the same. They itched and stung from the fine particles.
“I’m thinking it’s because of those air pockets the GPR discovered yesterday.” He shrugged. “Of course, we won’t know for certain until we hollow out in that area.”
“How much time have we lost?”
“A week. Maybe two at the most.”
Sighing, Kelling turned around to mentally count heads. Irmine noticed and guessed what he was doing.
“They all got out in time.”
“You sure?” He trusted his assistant, but he had to ask anyway.
Irmine didn’t seem to mind. “It was Boteef who gave the alarm. I saw him and the others scramble out of there in record time.”
The air appeared to be clearing in spite of the fact that there wasn’t a lick of a breeze on this blistering summer day. Lowering his arm from his face, Kelling took a tentative sniff. Irmine followed suit.
“All right. Let’s get back to work.”
Irmine called out to the scattered workers, speaking in Arabic to the locals employed to work the dig. Kelling watched as they brought forth more buckets, shovels, and wheelbarrows to carry out the loosened dirt and sand.
While the crew removed the excess, he sauntered over to the tent pitched near the road and took refuge under the white awning. A young man was sitting at a table and pouring over the latest photographs taken by the ground penetrating radar. Kelling noticed the cord running from the laptop computer and under the tent where the solar power pack propped outside kept it running.
Arnie glanced up when the Egyptologist entered and dropped into a canvas chair. “I heard the rumble. Everything okay out there?”
“Yeah, thank God. Hopefully the only thing we’ve lost is a little time.”
The archeologist didn’t answer. He jotted a memo to himself in the spiral notebook sitting by his elbow and resumed studying the photographs. Kelling got up and went over to peer over his shoulder.
“Anything new?”
The young man shook his head. “Not much, but I’m beginning to believe this isn’t a burial tomb.”
Kelling wasn’t surprised by the comment, although he was a bit disappointed. Still, he knew they’d found something out of the ordinary. Just what it was remained to be seen.
“What makes you say that?”
“Look here.” Arnie pointed to the screen. “See those dark spots? Those empty chambers? There’s two parallel rows of them, ending with larger spots at both ends. A typical tomb never has parallel rooms. Adjacent, yes, but not like this. For another, those chambers are tiny. Eight by five meters at the most. Now this larger one, it’s around fifteen by fifteen. Same for this one at the other end of the row.”
“Couldn’t those two end chambers be burial chambers, and the parallel ones contain the paraphernalia that would be buried with the person entombed? I agree, it’s totally unlike any of the tombs discovered in the past, but you yourself said we could be looking at something that predates even King Menes and the First Dynasty.”
“I said it’s possible. And it could explain the vast differences in what we’ve already encountered. Then again, this could just be an extension of the city that was abandoned ages ago, and allowed to be reclaimed by the desert.” Arnie leaned back from the table. “You want my educated guess?”
“Shoot.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we were looking at two possibilities. One is a market or storage area.”
“Which could explain why the areas are in close parallel rows. What’s your second thought?”
“A prison or dungeon. And those small areas were holding cells. Look, I want to further point out something.” He enlarged one of the photos and indicated a dark smudge in one of the end rooms. “Look here. There’s something inside this room. Don’t know what it could be, but I think we should refocus our efforts and excavate there.”
Kelling sighed. “Interesting suggestions, and I agree with you. We won’t be able to ascertain if either of them are correct until we can get down there and investigate.” He started to say more when he heard someone yelling for him. His first thought was that there’d been another cave-in. Alarmed, he hurried out of the tent to see Takesh running toward him.
“Tabib Kelling! Come! Come!” The excited man waved for him to follow, then took off back in the direction of the excavation. Kelling took off after him. There was no sense asking the man what was wrong or why he’d been summoned. He’d find out soon enough.
When he arrived, Irmine was standing inside a small, shallow indentation. Hearing the professor approaching, the man gave him a huge grin. “We got lucky,” the man announced. “The cave-in affected less than half of the area, but it also opened up a large pit directly over that part of our site where I’d said we should concentrate our efforts.”
“It did?” Kelling stopped next to him and stared out over the sectioned off expanse where they’d been digging for the past six weeks.
Irmine swept an arm, indicating a large, rectangular pit. “That’s where one of the larger holes was located.”
“Anything ping off the metal detectors?”
The man’s smile drooped. “Very little, if anything. At least, nothing that would indicate there’s an abundance of gold down there. But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be things like canopic jars, or other non-metallic items.”
“True, true. Here, let me go grab a brush and I’ll join you.” Kelling left to retrieve a few tools. By the time he returned, Irmine and two others had managed to clear away enough sand to reveal what appeared to be the top of the hole. He remained standing behind the barrier while they continued to remove the dirt, until an opening appeared. Irmine bent over it and scooped out more by hand, enlarging the depression until it was large enough for a body to slip through.
“Hand me a light.” The man reached up, snagging the flashlight from the worker to shine it inside. He kept one hand on the top of the opening and precariously balanced himself on his knees as he stuck his head inside the hole.
Kelling watched in silent anticipation until the man reared back on his heels, that big grin still on his face. “It looks like there’s some kind of idol in there.”
“An idol? Can you identify it?”
Irmine shook his head. “Nope. It’s at the very back of the room. I’ll have to go inside.”
“Be careful.”
Irmine nodded. Then, getting onto his back, he scooted feet-first into the hole. The wait wasn’t long before the man’s head popped into view. “You gotta come see this!”
Kelling climbed over the barrier and carefully inched his way toward the depression. When he reached the entrance, he took the flashlight another worker was waiting to hand him, and entered the chamber in the same feet-first manner.
It was a short fall. He landed on his feet almost immediately. Glancing up, Kelling observed that the crescent-shaped opening was just above his head, which meant the ceiling couldn’t be more than two meters high. Being over six feet himself, he was forced to hunch over to keep from hitting it.
“Over here.”
Sunlight barely penetrated the interior. Like other tombs he’d visited or unearthed, the place had a dusty smell that always reminded him of his grandmother’s attic.
Irmine was standing at the far end of the room. Kelling strode over to examine what the man had discovered.
His breath caught in his throat. For a long minute he stared at the object, then reached over to tentatively touch it. It was clearly made of stone, perhaps Tuffacious limestone that was commonly used to erect the pyramids. But in no way did it depict any of the old Egyptian gods he was familiar with. In fact, he’d swear that it looked like…
“My god. Is that a…a gargoyle?”
“That’s exactly what I thought,” Irmine remarked.
Shining his light around the interior, Kelling noted a couple of things. “This sure isn’t a temple.”
“Doesn’t appear to be. But, you gotta check this out. Look at its ankles.”
The man directed his flashlight at the base of the idol. Kelling squatted to peer at what the man was indicating. Before he could comment, the associate crouched down next to him.
“Do those look like chains to you?”
Kelling ran his fingertips over the metal. Like other metals they had found sealed beneath the sands, it hadn’t had the chance to corrode. But now that this place had been opened to the elements, it was imperative they preserve their findings as quickly as possible.
He bent his face closer to the object. “Someone tried to put cuffs on this thing.”
“Maybe they believed it would somehow come alive and attack them,” Irmine surmised.
“But it looks like they changed their mind and knocked them off. Why? This place definitely isn’t a temple,” Kelling restated.
“At least, not an ancient Egyptian temple,” the associate countered, and flashed his beam around the interior. “No hieroglyphs. No nothing except this slab of rock with the chains embedded in it, and this monstrosity.”
“A beautiful monstrosity,” Kelling corrected. He stood and scanned the stone figure more closely. “Look at the detail. It’s almost lifelike.”
“Hey, Kelling?” Irmine tapped his mouth with a forefinger, a habit he had when he was thinking. “What if it’s an idol that was captured during battle, and was hidden here to keep its original owners from finding it?”
“That’s a viable theory, but it doesn’t explain the chains.”
“Maybe it was already attached to the rock when it was transported here.”
Kelling followed the crude metal links from the figure to the rock. “This slab has to weigh at least two tons. I’m guessing the idol weighs a fourth of that. No. If someone is going to go to the trouble of stealing someone’s god, they’re going to try to do it as quickly as possible. A dozen or so men could carry this thing, but it would take a more massive effort to bring that rock with it. No, I’m thinking that rock was already here when the thing was brought here. Then they may have chained it to the rock to prevent it from being stolen back.”
Irmine nodded. “I like your theory better.”
A glint of something shiny reflected from his flashlight’s beam. Digging out a soft, camel hair artist’s brush from his back pocket, Kelling lightly dusted the object which was lying underneath the idol’s left hand. Irmine aimed his light from the opposite direction to give him a clearer view.
“What do you think it is?”
“It appears to be a second idol. Maybe a totem of some sort.”
Irmine gasped. “Two idols? Buried together?”
“I know, right? And it appears…” Kelling gave the object a little tug with his index finger. “This thing is loose.”
It didn’t take a lot of effort other than time to carefully work the small object from underneath the immense statue’s hand. When he’d finally managed to extricate it, he examined the statuette. “I don’t recognize it, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.” He handed it to Irmine. “Have you?”
The man peered at it. “No. It’s obviously made of a hardened clay, but the metal band around what seems to be the thing’s neck has me baffled.” He wiped the band with his thumb. “I’d swear that’s gold. Gold on a clay totem?”
Kelling took the statuette from him. “I’m going to take this back topside and send Arnie down here to take pictures. Get a full three-sixty. Then we’ll begin the preservation of this idol.”
“Do I need to start the paperwork so we can remove it?”
“Yeah.”
He turned to leave when a grating sound came from within the chamber. Kelling instinctively crouched down, his muscles tensing in case they needed to make a dash for the opening. After a few moments, he glanced over at his assistant. “Better get that preservation done first before this place caves in.”
He noticed Irmine was staring at the statue. The man’s eyes were wide with apprehension, and his face had gone pale. “What wrong? What’s the matter?”
Irmine lifted his face to the professor. “You’re going to think I’ve gone batty, but I swear on my life that damn idol just moved!”
Chapter 4
Request
“How’s my favorite assistant museum curator?” the familiar voice on the other end of the phone asked.
“Hey there, Uncle Chet. It’s dead around here. How’s the dig going? Where are you exactly?”
“Slowly and painfully, but what else is new?” The man chuckled at his joke. “We’re approximately three kilometers northeast of the Valley of the Kings, at a new site.”
Brielle glanced around her office. “Listen, I have a few minutes before my next meeting. Can we take this to video?”
“Most certainly,” her uncle remarked. “I’ll call you back.” The call was discontinued, but a few seconds later her cell rang again, and she smiled at the man’s haggard but beloved face.
“Good lord, you look terrible,” she laughed. “How are things really going? Please tell me you’ve had some success to make up for it.”
“Actually, I’m not calling just to chat and to bring you up to date on my latest dig. There is another purpose for this call,” the older man remarked.
“Oh?” She sat up straighter in her chair. Whenever her favorite uncle told her there was a “purpose”, it was always followed by a request. And ninety-nine percent of the time, it was one that always got her as excited as a youngster being taken to a fair.
Kelling held up an object to the phone. Judging its size from his fingers holding it, it couldn’t be more than five inches tall and perhaps a couple of inches wide. She peered more closely at it.
“What’s your first impression?”
“It looks like an idol of some sort. Maybe a representation of some minor deity because of its size. And because of the lack of facial features. But it’s definitely a figurine. Where’d you find it?”
“At this site we’ve been digging at for the past few weeks. But that’s not the biggest find. Just wait until you get a gander of the statue that was holding it.”
Excitement sparked her curiosity even further. “A statue?”
Her uncle turned the phone around to where she could see the carving in question. It was difficult to make out the fine details, even with the lanterns and flashlights illuminating it. But her first response was one of incredulity.
“Wait a minute! Are you telling me that’s Egyptian?”
“I’m not telling you anything of the sort,” her uncle replied off-camera. “I’m just giving you the facts. We found it here, buried inside some very unusual ruins. Arnie is emailing you the GPR photos so you can see their construction. I’ll be sending you the snapshots we’ve taken so far. Brie, we think we may have found an artifact that predates the First Dynasty.”
She caught her breath. “Are you certain?”
“We don’t know. That’s why I’m needing your help. That little idol I just showed you? I’m sending it to you to evaluate once we get our release forms approved. It’s going to take us a couple more weeks t
o get this big boy shipped. We’re being plagued by cave-ins and sand storms.” The man chuckled. “Sometimes it feels as if the old gods don’t want this place exhumed.”
“When do you anticipate shipping the little idol?”
Her uncle scratched the back of his head. She smiled as a cloud of dust arose from the action. “Hopefully by the end of the week. Will that work for you?”
The end of the week. She and Tanner had been planning for a month to go up to Swanson’s Creek for a long girls’ weekend away and to celebrate her sister’s birthday on Tuesday. She’d already asked for vacation leave and had it approved. But, then again, her uncle never brought her in on his digs unless he felt it was necessary.
If the deportation was approved, and it didn’t get hung up in customs, the earliest the figurine would arrive would be either be the following Thursday or Friday. Plenty of time to enjoy their long-awaited time off before tackling this new project.
“Sounds like a plan,” she acknowledged. “I’ll let the director know we have incoming. Congratulations again on the find, uncle.”
“Thanks. If we’re lucky, this won’t be the last of it.”
She saw Irmine rushing into the tent where her uncle was sitting. The man came up behind him before he spotted her on the cell phone.
“Hey, Brielle! How’s it cooking?” He gave a wave, which she returned.
“One day at a time, Irmine. It’s good to see you again!”
Irmine turned his attention to her uncle. “Hate to break this up, but we’ve had another setback.”
Kelling winced. “Okay. I’ll be right there.” He turned to look at his niece. “Sorry to cut this short, Brie.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just give me a head’s up when you ship the little idol so I can be on the lookout for it.”
“Will do. Thanks.”
“And tell Arnie hi for me.”
“Okay. ‘Bye!”
“Goodbye. I love you!”
The call ended before she’d finished, but that didn’t bother her. It was another typical day for those whose life’s work were left to chance and the whims of Mother Nature. Besides, she had a new challenge practically on its way to her.
