Chapter 5 #2
Robin nodded, smile flashing again. “Oh, we are. She said that, the professor, I mean. We can absolutely watch. We just can’t make a video or anything like that.”
“Okay. Let me put this stuff back in my car, and we’ll go meet this mummy.”
Walking into the Earth Sciences building was like entering a Costco-level variety of scents: harsh chemicals, briny salt water, dry and dusty hard rock, and the damp and nutrient-rich smell of soil.
The building was home to geology, archaeology, oceanography, meteorology, and a host of other ologies, and it seemed to Oliver as if each was trying to outdo the others.
In his mind, Oliver had pictured them descending a flight of stairs to a large cinderblock-walled space, like the storage area of museums he’d seen in movies. Walls lined with shelves packed with various artifacts and ancient scrolls.
Instead, the room Robin led him to at the far end of a first-floor hallway was more like a recording studio.
They entered into a sound and video control booth, complete with a complicated instrument board sporting three color monitors displaying feeds from cameras in the examination area beyond.
A young man and a young woman sat in roller chairs at the console, both wearing padded headphones.
Both looked up when they stepped inside.
“This is my friend Beryl,” Robin said, gesturing to the woman.
She was Black with short, bright purple hair and glasses, and she smiled and waved.
“And this guy is Ricky.” The man had long, straight hair and a beard that grew down to his chest. He nodded and flashed a peace sign.
“They’re going to be recording all of this. This is Oliver.”
Oliver raised his hand in greeting before following Robin through a door into the inner work area.
He stopped and stared. When he thought about mummies and tombs, he pictured sarcophagi crafted from stone and decorated with gold and intricate carvings.
The vessel resting on a pedestal in the middle of the space was a coffin.
It was smaller and less grandiose than he’d imagined.
Faded yellow paint had flaked off the sides and top, but Oliver guessed the color must have been bright back in the day.
Heavy panels on every wall reinforced the impression of a recording studio. Three digital cameras on tripods stood around the coffin, one at the base, and one each side. Cables ran from the back of each camera and plugged into jacks in the wall.
“Hi, Professor Brennan, this is Oliver, my friend I told you about,” Robin said.
A small, thin woman, her shoulder-length dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, stopped in the middle of what she had been saying to four students in a corner of the room and snapped her head around.
“It’s Doctor Brennan.”
“Sorry,” Robin whispered.
“I want to be perfectly clear,” she continued in a firm, smooth tone that brooked no allowance for bargaining or disagreement. “This is my discovery, and I will manage the release of our findings. Do you understand?”
Oliver took half a step back. “I understand. Thank you for allowing me to participate.”
“You are not a participant. You are an observer. You are not to touch anything, either of you. Your only role is to stand back and observe.” She straightened her spine and lifted her chin slightly.
“I would have you in the control room with Ricky and Beryl, but I want them undisturbed and focused on capturing everything we uncover.”
“I’ll do my best to stay out of your way,” Oliver said.
Her icy gaze hardened even more. “You’ll do it, or you’re out. There’s no doing your best. Are we clear?”
“Yep.” Oliver retreated another step. “Yes. Absolutely clear.”
“Good.” She gestured to a work table in the corner where a number of tools had been laid out.
“There are NDA forms for you to sign. When that’s been done, you may stand over there.
” She gave a dismissive wave in the direction of a shadowed corner near the door to what Oliver assumed was a supply closet.
Then she turned her back to write in a notebook resting on a tall table.
Oliver led the way, giving the coffin a wide berth. At the work bench, a number of crowbars lay in perfectly aligned rows. He scanned the document and found it a standard boilerplate NDA, so signed his name. Robin did the same then led the way to their designated area.
“Dr. Brennan?”
That had come from a muscular, square-jawed man with dark hair and eyes.
Dr. Brennan responded without turning. “Yes, Dylan?”
“I think we’re ready when you are.” Dylan turned toward the glass of the control booth. “Ricky and Beryl, are you recording okay?”
Ricky and Beryl both gave thumbs up.
“Very good. I’m just making a few final notes.”
After a moment, she snapped her notebook shut. Securing it with a thick rubber band, she tucked it into a leather satchel on a chair. She clasped her hands before her and slowly ran her dark-eyed gaze over their faces, including Robin and Oliver’s.
“What you’re all about to be a part of should be considered an honor. Dylan and I were able to decipher a bit of information about the burial site through the time-worn hieroglyphics while on site. Samira provided deeper translations via video call. Thank you, Samira.”
A beautiful young woman, with dark hair and eyes—possibly of Egyptian heritage, Oliver thought—smiled and nodded. “It was an honor to be part of such a discovery. Still a lot more left to translate, but I think we understand quite a bit.”
“We do. As you see before us, this is not a stone or metal sarcophagus. This vessel has been built from hardened wood. This tells us the person resting inside was a member in good standing within a royal household, but not royalty themselves. The translations support this. Samira was able to learn this coffin protects the body of a scribe who worked under Isry, she herself being one of the hundreds of royal wives to Rameses the second. Dylan and I were working in Isry’s tomb in the Valley of the Nobles and uncovered the antechamber holding this coffin.
Both Isry and her scribe, whose name Samira has translated, were entombed with care, and I want each of us to take that same level of care now.
” She paused to allow that to sink in before continuing.
“Since Samira was the one who translated this scribe’s name, I will allow her to speak it here first.” Dr. Brennan nodded to her. “Samira.”
“Thank you, doctor. From what I was able to translate through the photos and rubbings Dylan and Dr. Brennan provided, the scribe’s name was Amenmose, and it appears he and Isry enjoyed a very close bond.”
“Very good,” Dr. Brennan said with a nod. “As Samira said, there is still much more to be understood from the writings.” She looked at them each in turn, holding Oliver’s gaze a moment before moving on. He had to hand it to the professor. She definitely had a flair for the dramatic.
“Amenmose dedicated his life to transcribing Isry’s daily calendar, and possibly even what she thought about her life.
He may have known her before she’d married Rameses the second, and because of this she brought him with her as she stepped into her role as a royal wife.
We do not know whether Amenmose’s death was before or after Isry’s passing, but based on the fact that his tomb was connected to hers, we can assume they shared a meaningful relationship.
When we open this coffin, it will be the first time Amenmose’s body will be seen in over three thousand years.
“I want you all to take a moment and reflect on the sacred privilege of your position here. Amenmose was a human, like all of us. He laughed and cried, loved and was loved. He spent his days in service to Isry, but also had dreams, as do we all. He may have enjoyed being a scribe to someone he considered a friend. Or he may have harbored an unrequited love for her that cut him to the quick each day they were together. Whatever his life was like, we are now the first people to see inside his coffin since his body was preserved and sealed away. We need to be cognizant of that enormous privilege and treat Amenmose and his final resting place with the respect we would expect future humans to treat our own.”
Dr. Brennan paused again. Oliver felt a bit light-headed from how she had put this experience into perspective. It might be interesting to take one of her courses the next semester.
“And you two.” Dr. Brennan fixed Oliver and Robin with a hard look. “Are to stay back out of the way and not interfere.”
Oliver immediately reconsidered.
“All right. Let’s begin.”