el-Amarna Egypt, 1957 C.E.
Joint Egyptian-British expedition.
The archaeologist from London conferred with his counterparts from Amman and Cairo. Unfortunately, the only language they shared in common was French. The Englishman did his best to translate from the Queen's English to French, while the other two men conferred in Arabic. The Jordanian tried to recall the French of his youth in Morocco to speak to the scholar from London. The native-born Egyptian was at a disadvantage in both English and French, but his understanding of Hieroglyphics and Demotic was second-to-none.
The Englishman gestured to the isolated desert site. "Yes, the dig was here, or near here, I'm certain of it."
The Egyptian ran his hands across a damaged stone obelisk and studied the ancient symbols and spoke to the Jordanian who translated for the Englishman. "Yes, indeed. Mohammed says that the fragments of this stele clearly state that this was the Holy City founded by Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti. Everything here was dedicated to the new god. The Aten was not a new god, and his cult was ancient beyond measure. But the Pharaoh who had renamed himself in this new city declared for all that the one prime God of Egypt was that of the sun disk, the holy Aten."
The Englishman removed a well-worn and overstuffed leather-bound notebook from a satchel. "Yes, this is the place, I'm sure of it. I have Sir Richard's notebook, perhaps with a bit of luck, we will find where those tablets and strange metallic objects described in his journal were found. See here, these are rubbings taken from two strange artifacts. The symbols are unknown to me, but he clearly describes the objects as metal and found near here."
The two other men looked at the book carefully and the Egyptian shook his head and mumbled in Arabic. The Jordanian translated his words. "My friend, he says that has never seen these symbols before."
The Englishman put the notebook away. "Yes, and metal was very valuable. A dagger of meteoroid iron was found in Tut's tomb. Perhaps this was made of the same stuff. Well gentlemen, shall we dig?"
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The Information Paradox
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