"Mr. Edwin, you can look at it as long as you want. This is just the opening dish. We have better things if you're interested."
In the bright office, George Edwin, who was sitting behind the desk, saw the pottery fragment and his heart skipped a beat.
There were many differences between a fake and a genuine one. For someone like him who had been in the Egyptian relic trade for more than 30 years, he could see many details at a glance.
Now, his experience told him that this was a genuine one.
However, Edwin did not show it on his face. He took the palm-sized fragment from the dealer with his gloved hands. He could see the excitement on the faces of the three dealers.
They were three local men who had approached him through a middleman, Paul Smith. Smith was now watching from the side. Both of them knew that most of the dealers were new to the trade. They had gotten their hands on some treasures and were in a hurry to sell them for money. This was usually a good price for both parties.
"Let me see." Edwin carefully held the fragment in one hand and picked up a magnifying glass with the other. He began to examine it.
They did not ask where the item came from. That was none of their business. They only cared about the authenticity of the item.
As long as it was genuine and bought at a good price, it could naturally appear in the auction houses of England and America and be sold for a high price.
Confirming the authenticity of the relics in his hands was the only thing that Edwin cared about.
As soon as he took the fragment, Edwin could already see a line of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on the fragment. It was in the style of the Holy Book.
[% ¥% ¥% ¥% ¥]
Edwin's forehead wrinkled. He had a strange feeling in his heart …
"How is it?" the dealer, Bashir, asked nervously.
Paul Smith was also watching from the side. He knew a little about the style of the Holy Book. "The king, the sun god, the inscription is well preserved. I just don't know if it's real or not."
"Of course it's real," Bashir said immediately. Ella was even more anxious. "Let me tell you, we still have a few fragments like this." Eldin noticed the pensive look on Edwin's old face and asked, "What does the picture mean?"
"It literally means the king with the crown and the staff in his hand + the rebel, the sun god + the rebel."
Edwin looked at the four words carefully with a magnifying glass. "The rebel is at the back, and there is no name or royal circle, so it should mean that this was a rebel at that time, against the king, against the Sun God. This fragment was probably unearthed from a traitor's tomb. "
Bashir, Ella, and Eldin looked at each other. If that was the case, they would not be relatives of the royal family.
If that was the case, it would explain why there was no mausoleum or coffin …
But Bashir thought it was a tactic to lower the price. He said loudly, "Mr. Edwin, I don't care if it's a rebel or not. This is an Egyptian relic."
"I didn't say it wasn't." Edwin said softly. He was gradually entranced by it. The quality of this pottery fragment was very high, and the texture was clear. Moreover, the script of the Holy Script was one of the earliest scripts used in ancient Egypt. If it was the script of the Holy Script, then this fragment could even be traced back to 3000 BC.
The Sacred Script gradually evolved to only retain its phonetic function, a bit like the English alphabet.
The earliest script of the Holy Script focused on form and meaning. It was very graphic, and one could understand the meaning it was trying to express by looking at the picture.
But with just this fragment and four words, Edwin could not tell which era this Sacred Script was from, and what it meant …
And the meaning was very important. Only when more and more complete words were put together could one determine whether it was scripture, inscription, or something else, record, blessing, or spell, and what kind of item this fragment came from.
"Did you bring the rest of the fragments?" Edwin looked up and asked. "I need to figure out the type of these fragments before I can give an estimate."
Bashir and the others hesitated. Paul Smith also said, "Take them all out. Different things have different values."
"Mr. Edwin, you'd better explain your opinion to us," Bashir said. He waved his hand for Ella to take something out of his backpack. Ella stared at Edwin's old face as he took out the remaining three fragments and placed them on the table.
"Be gentle!" Seeing the other party's rough movements, Edwin could not help but yell. In his heart, he was already leaning towards the authenticity of these fragments. Relics that had existed for thousands of years were very fragile.
"Mr. Edwin, it seems that you are quite satisfied with our goods." Eldin could see that Edwin was nervous.
Ella and Bashir immediately smiled knowingly. Edwin did not respond, and was already trying to put the four fragments together.
These were indeed the fragments of the same pottery. The broken pieces could be put together to form a bowl-shaped container. The words were carved in the middle of the container and on the surface of the bowl. They were all very clear, and time could not erode their lines.
Edwin frowned as he looked at the Sacred Script on the four fragments. For some reason, the more he looked at it, the more he felt an indescribable feeling in his heart …
There were no punctuation marks in the ancient Egyptian language, but sometimes different expressions would be written in separate lines, or in different sizes.
The four fragments formed four sentences.
From left to right, the first sentence: [% ¥%% ¥%% ¥]
The second sentence: [% ¥%% ¥%% ¥]
The third sentence: [% ¥%% ¥%% ¥]
The fourth sentence: [% ¥%% ¥%% ¥]
"The first sentence: the king's traitor, the traitor of the sun god."
As Edwin thought about it, he explained softly to the people around him, "The second sentence: stone + pustules — that is, disease … stone disease, pustules caused by stone, disease caused by stone, this could be the cause of death of the deceased … The third sentence: bird trap + dissected pustules — represents medicine + birds + a flock of birds + death, a trap for birds? Using medicine to kill birds … The fourth sentence: the god of the ram's head + new world + new life + power … "
Stone disease and bird killer. Bashir scratched his head as he listened. "What does that mean?"
Even Paul Smith could not understand it, let alone the three drug dealers. In fact, modern people had limited understanding of the ancient Egyptian language. Not only did they not understand the meaning of many words, but they also had to rely on guesswork to connect the words together.
"Stone disease …" Edwin looked at the fragments. He was not sure if this was the cause of death of the traitor? Or the way the traitor rebelled?
Who engraved this inscription? Someone from the king's side? Or someone from the traitor's side?
This directly determined the meaning of the words, especially the third and fourth sentences …
"It seems to be in that era," Edwin said, feeling even more confused. Edwin said, feeling even more confused. "There's a rebellion against the Sun God Nation, it's related to a disease... Mr. Bashir, I'll take all the fragments. What other treasures do you have?"
"Haha, that's a lot, but much more expensive than these fragments," Bashir said happily. Ella also said happily, "You might not be able to buy them."
As Edwin spoke, he was still thinking about the ancient words on the four fragments.
[% ¥%% ¥%% ¥]
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
