Morning all, ready to get started on a new week? I am. It was a nice quiet weekend and I managed to rest and recharge. And I have to say, this writing prompt was calling to me. It seemed like something I could sink my teeth into. So let’s get started shall we?
Okay, I can’t lie, this was a fun one. Its mostly set up for the first fifteen but I think that there is the germ of a story here. I don’t think that this is the beginning of it though. I think it may be somewhere towards the middle. It is certainly something I am going to tuck away for later contemplation.
Monday, March 29th: Underlying these figurative images were literal beliefs.
Underlying these figurative images were literal beliefs. It was hard to remember that when studying the images. The belief system was so far removed from anything in my experience. In addition the images were so fanciful and such beautiful pieces of artwork that it was difficult to think of them as something other than art.
The meticulous attention to detail was evident in each one of the objects and their placement deep in the cave system managed to preserved them from the elements so it was as though each piece came straight from the artist’s hand. The caves themselves were deep and highly elevated. The air was cold and bone dry. It was as though the items were kept in a freezer for centuries.
I shivered. Working in the caves was a somewhat daunting task. We, as yet, had no secure place to move any of the items that would be better at preserving them. At the moment we also didn’t have permission to move them. Part of that was politics and would be sorted out by a slew of officials representing different interests. In the end I would go with whoever took the objects as that was part of the contract. I had little concern about the final decision and would deal with whichever choice was made.
The other reason that nothing had been moved was that no one knew a way to actually move everything safely. The caves were in the heart of a hard to navigate mountain range. It was the reason they lasted so long without being disturbed. There were no roads in the area. There were no reason for roads to be in the area. The items were only found by a lost hiker and the medivac team that went searching for him. It was a rare happy ending for this area as most of those who attempted hiking it were never found. In fact, the area for miles upon miles around was off limits to anyone without a permit.
Permits were rarely given.
No one was really worried that someone would stumble onto the site and loot it before we could study and make decisions of the final location for them. Simply getting here was hard enough. Many of the objects weighed several tons. Getting them out would be a noticeable endeavor no matter if it was done officially or illegally.
At the moment I put aside all the outside considerations and simply studied the artifacts before me. The designs were similar to ones found in sites further away. It was where these people migrated when they left the mountain range and spread out across land that was now considered part of several different countries. Once it was all part of the same ancient empire.
It was clear though that those sites found elsewhere were only pale imitations. Here there was more detail, and many more stories.
The set up was the same. The pillars were carved with the general story and each of the smaller objects were carved with the smaller stories that made up the whole. Each pillar details an epoch while the items were captured moments.
For example one pillar mentioned a flood. It was a small image with three images and only five glyphs cared into the pillar. The separate item, labeled with the same glyphs was entirely dedicated to the details of the flood. I laughed and shook my head, blowing on my fingertips a bit to warm them. The smaller item was a granite slab weighing nearly two tons. It only seemed small when compared to the massive pillars.
Ten til Midnight 