Shadow of the southern god - Writings on the wall.

Natasha was breathing in gasps as were now more than 50 meters down in the cave, it was not yet ventilated, and she was not used to being so deep in a dig. I tried to calm her down and ask her to go back and get her breathing in control, Nawazir also tried to talk to her but she said she will be fine. We were 7 of us in this tunnel system and from the looks of it there is an entire network of them here. Jonathan, our lead archaeologist, was already trying to map the tunnels ahead as he wanted to make sure we have a planned route for research. I joined him after making sure Natasha was able to walk unaided, “Richard, there you are. Its amazing here isn’t it, to think this place was buried under a lake no less. The tunnels are bone dry which begs to question why was this place built like this.”

“I suppose its to keep it away from raiders unlike the Valley of kings we were in last year. Or it could be to lock something here, either way I supposed we will find out sooner or later, I just hope it’s not the latter.”

We marked our passage by placing markers on the floor, our entire philosophy in such finds is to only leave footprints and not take anything unless needed. Items such as scrolls that contained information were carefully stored and taken to a lab to be scanned and then returned to the site but kept in hermetically stored containers. The old days of pillaging such sites were gone but it did not stop a number of raiders from doing that. Sharif, our local representative, was also doing his part by mapping other tunnels, what was odd is that the tunnels would abruptly end in odd way like walls or there would be stairs to walls. It was like a maze with more dead ends, the entrance was supposed to be another dead end.

After a few hours we finally found a sort of entrance to a large ante chamber, it was circular domed chamber and like the tunnels was with out any markings on who this place was for. No symbols or writings on the wall to guide us, we had to wait for a couple of hours for the surface team to bring us lights, generator and a pipe to pump in filtered air from the surface. As we waited Sharif walked about the place with his light to see what he could find and if there was an exit or entrance, Jonathan tried to find the centre of the room to find some sort of indication as where we were. The others in the team were examining the walls, I was staring up at the roof of the chamber for some reason, there was something up there that did not fit the smooth walls of the ceiling. It was like a sarcophagus that was built in to the wall or something, so I called Sharif to also have a look. He looked up at it and was just as confused, there were indications that there were writings on said sarcophagus but until the team did not arrive, we would not know.

Jonathan was finding anything and neither were the others so the only thing of interest was the thing on the ceiling, it was roughly 40 feet above us. How and why it was placed here confounded everyone as this was the first time we ever saw something like this and also the fact that there were not items found that enlightened us on who build this. There were other tunnels that were still to be checked gave some hope that we might find something. Nawazir asked if he could check the other tunnels with two others and left, Natasha was sitting down next to the exit, I was taking a closer look at the walls, they were carved out and smoothened with clay which was making me curious as who built this place and for who.

The team arrived and began setting things up and the pipe that carried the filtered air from the surface was a welcome relief for everyone. The lights were on after the invertor was switched on, the whole chamber was lit up and we could finally see the place in a better light. The walls, ceiling and floor were all barren, I was taken aback by all this. There were sites we visited before and there would some carvings on the wall or something but here they were plain. This made the protrusion on the wall all the more interesting. Setting up a platform to work on would take a few more hours which could not be avoided so I decided to continue exploring the rest of the tunnels. The air here was thick and warm which made it difficult to breath at times so progress was slow, the roof of the tunnels were dry which made me curious how this place stayed like this even under a lake.

The lake was a originally thought to be natural but a survey done by the government found the tunnel system below and an effort to drain the lake proved also that the lake was manmade. The excavation was done quietly but Jonathan was contacted by Sharif as they have a good working relationship, this site needed to be explored by intellectuals and not grave robbers. While looking through the other tunnels I found something odd, in all the smooth walls there was one part that looked rough and from the looks of it was a sealed door. I called for Sharif and his team, they were quick to respond and soon the assistants were slowly excavating the door. Jonathan joined us as I waited on the side, Nawazir returned to report that they only found dead ends.

“So this place is supposed to be a maze, I suppose it may have been built to confuse spirits and to trap them here. I cannot think of a better idea, what about you Sharif?”

“I am in the same idea, but why leave this place so empty. Even if it was to trap the spirits, the people could have left some sort of story to let others know who is supposed to be trapped here.”

One of Nawazir’s assistants finally joined us and he seemed more excited as he said he found something while retracing his steps. He began by showing us photos he took of the tunnel corners, every one of them had notches carved on to them at the very top, almost like the trail markers we used. He then explained that certain tunnels had 1 notch while others had more and following the trail that had just one made a symbol. What the symbol meant we could not figure that out there but this brought some interest from Nawazir who then decided to follow this lead while we waited to see what was behind the door.

This was something I had never thought of before, now we were in an entirely new style of architecture. I was still on the fence on exactly why this place was built and I could see that Jonathan and Sharif were of the same mind. There were discoveries where we found scrolls that spoke about the kings and queens while other spoke of gods and their histories, here there was nothing. This region was further away from the ancient cities so it was odd from the very beginning. Could be that this place was an old testing ground for warriors or a prison, nothing made any sense.

The door was finally revealed and the men stood back as another man came in with a drill to drill a hole for the probe. This way if there was anything on the other side that would compromise the site we could block it and keep the place safe. The door was quite thick, according to the assistant it was 10 inches thick. We were piling on mystery after mystery here and there were no answers in sight.

The probe was then inserted into the hole and looking at the other side we were perplexed by the sight. It was a room with shelves carved into the walls, the camera could not reveal more so we decided to open it. It took a few more drill holes for hooks to be attached to for the team to pull slowly out of the way. It took almost an hour of labour to open but when we did the air inside was found to be cooler that the tunnel system which indicated that this place was supposed to be an exit. Sharif was given the honour to enter the room first and as he shone the light within he gasped at the rows of clay jars that lined the walls. He walked to the one closest and tried to look inside, an assistant moved forward with the probe to see inside and what they saw was what we were looking for, parchment.

The team in the large chamber were asked to stop the platform work and help with the careful removal of the jars instead, Natasha and her assistant were even tasked to help out with the moving. I decided to explore the tunnel that led out the room, I was carved into the rock and was not as easy to walk on. I moved carefully while checking the structure of the tunnel to see if it was safe to move, after about 10 minutes I came upon a cave-in. The way forward was blocked and I turned around to return, slightly disappointed but at least it gave us the closure on why this place was never found in the beginning.

There were a total of 43 jars that were moved from the room and the mood of the team was lifted by this, the walls of the room were still plain as the tunnels but that was treated as a minor annoyance. As the last jar left the room and site we returned to the large chamber, the scaffold was almost complete and near the protrusion. Nawazir also returned to us with a what he found, each notch was mapped on his tablet and they were leading to particular symbols that were carved into the dead end wall. Those symbols could easily have been missed as they were carved at the top right corner of the wall. Jonathan asked us to show it to Sharif, who was at the surface with the scroll jars, while he overlooked building of the scaffold to have a closer look at the ceiling sarcophagus. I followed Nawazir to the camp on the surface, I asked him if he had any idea what the symbols would mean but he did not and we met others of the team going to finish the scaffolding. On the way up I asked a passing worker about Natasha and she mentioned that Natasha was with the field doctor, I would have to go and check up on her after meeting Sharif.

Out in the open I could see it was past sunset and the temperature was getting cooler, I preferred the night and made my way to the tent where Sharif was examining the jars. Nawazir interrupted him and showed him the symbols, Sharif frowned at the symbols at first then asked that they be re-ordered. After looking at the new sequence Sharif went pale and looked up at us, “has anyone opened the sarcophagus?”

“Jonathan is overseeing the scaffolding right now, they should be close to it soon, why?”

“Nawazir, go now. Tell them to stop. It must not be opened. RUN!”

Nawazir did not need to be told twice and he ran immediately to the entrance. I looked at the retreating figure and then at Sharif, “what are the symbols Sharif?”

“They are an old warning not to open that sarcophagus. If I am right then opening it will flood the tunnels.”

I wanted to run and check on Nawazir but Sharif stopped me, he asked me to help him remove a parchment from a jar. I heard after a few minutes Jonathan coming to us, “thank God Nawazir showed up, my hand was under the lid when his shouts came through. If not, we would be drowning in the maze Sharif. How did you figure out the symbols?”

Sharif brushed him off saying that it was just a matter of figuring out the Sumerian language, it was very rudimentary and may have been created as a warning to the builders during its construction. Sumerian this far from their original territory raised an eyebrow from Jonathan, “this is further than the Sumer kingdom Sharif, are you sure?”

Sharif did not raise his head as he spoke, “yes I am sure. Also these scrolls are of the same. I am trying to figure out what they are saying so I guess we will need to take them back to the museum to have a better look. From what we have seen today I don’t see us going any where with nothing else to find. Just as we were about to discuss the closing of the camp a worker came running shouting about finding something, Natasha had returned after he treatment and decided to look around more.

We followed the worker to where the discovery had been made, it was past the door I had discovered and there Natasha and her colleague stood in front of another sealed door. This one had a few symbols faintly carved onto the centre, Sharif took a closer look and frowned. He said that he did not understand as they were too faded, Jonathan moved forward with his camera and tried to take photos of them and see if there was a way to enhance the quality. Until those symbols were not confirmed we could not open the door as any form of excavation would compromise them. Nawazir had the idea of creating a cast from them, this way any detail that was missing could be digitally re-created, Sharif was wary of this as introducing water could further degrade the already fragile structure of the carvings. Jonathan was of the same mind but when Nawazir showed what he was talking about they all accepted it as the new casting clay was based on a mix of silicon and other materials that solidified when introduced to hot air and a solvent.

We left Nawazir with his assistants to that and I joined Sharif to examine the scrolls, Natasha and Jonathan remained to oversee. Sharif did not say anything as we walked to the tent but I could see something was bothering him. He was not a talkative person but the few times I worked with him I understood that when something was bothering him he became more insular and would drown in the work he had for himself. I followed his ques what was needed to be done and we managed to successfully extract one scroll from its jar. Unrolling it carefully revealed what we expected, writings in Sumerian, but they were odd. It was as if they were written by someone higher in the society, maybe a high priest, this made this valuable but also very troubling. I had read in many places that high priests would often have a disciple write the missives and they would just dictate.

Sharif began reading the text and writing down what he could understand, I waited for him to finish. I would take a photo without a flash as a scan and have the computer lift the words. He stopped a few times while writing and looked up in remembrance then would continue, I was becoming a little impatient but knew I could not interrupt him.

“This text is about a god, who it is for I cannot say. I think we have found the tomb of said god, metaphorically but why busy a god unless that god was bad. Maybe there are other things the scrolls will talk further. This one was much younger as you can see that the jar had no yes begun to oxidise under this open air.” As he was discussing the scroll I set up my equipment to take the photo, it was closer to midnight now and the cold was getting worse for many, at this point Sharif decided to call it a day and decided to get some rest. I wanted to check on the crew below at the door, as I neared the entrance Natasha came out looking a little pale. I asked her what was happening and she informed me that the cast was successful but the excavation has been moved over to the morning as the crew are tired and some rest is in order. I did not need another reason to get some rest myself so I decided to turn in also and made my way to the tent and finally get some sleep.