Morning all and happy Monday. The heat from last week has gone, but at least it took the allergens with it. So break out the sweaters and set the coffee pot to brewing. It is time to warm the brains with the morning writing prompt. So timers set and off we go.
Interesting. Not sure where this is going but I rarely do with morning prompts. Kind of fun though.
Monday, February 10th: Only the edge was visible.
Only the edge was visible. It was tantalizing. He could see the carvings, even see a few of the colors still preserved after all these millennia. Over his shoulder, others watched, one recording video, the other taking high resolution stills. The natural dyes of long ago may appear fresh and vibrant when first revealed but they could often fade away completely once exposed. The two recording images were a necessity if information was to be preserved.
Carl did his best to ignore them. Slowly more of the panel was revealed. He caught sight of familiar names. The symbols spelling out the name of the great king Jerabon started to come to light. He felt his breath quicken, his heart race. So little was known about this king. Only his name and the praise other leaders heaped upon his shoulders.
Carl’s breath caught as another name was revealed. It was the name of the great war leader Fracontas. His hands shook from the impact of those two names on his mind. He took a deep breath and steadied them. There was no doubt about it. This would be a momentous find.
A career making history altering find.
‘Don’t get too excited,’ he cautioned himself. ‘You don’t know what it is yet. It could just be another marker telling the world how great they were and how like the two ancient celebrities they were.’
Carl had come across many stele with those who wished to compare themselves to one or both men. There were long lines of recorded text with leaders claiming that not since the age of Jerabon and his war leader Fracontas had any one been so great. A few claimed to be as good. None claimed to out do them. Even for the ancient braggarts, that was a step too far.
Carl tried to swallow back his hopes but as more and more of the panel came to light the harder it was. The panel kept growing bigger and bigger. Then he found the edge. He realized it was not a stele. It was the corner of a building.
A building they had not known was here.
‘It shouldn’t be here,’ he thought. They mapped the area and all of the buildings were 20 or more meters to the east. They only searched in this area because they hoped that there would be a stele. Typically the people would erect on at the cardinal points leading into town. It would contain information about the city. Carl hoped for a city name and possibly the name if the person who build it and a record of leadership. This building was completely unexpected.
He felt the tingling of discovery even as the two recording moved in to collect the details with their camera lenses. Carl signaled the diggers now that he knew it was a building. They would need to move a great deal more sand. All around him was movement. While Carl would have preferred to work alone he knew that the team would sift through ever handful of sand searching for any small artifacts while he concentrated on the building itself. He focused on the panel he revealed trying to read it now that he could see it completely.
Ten til Midnight 