Outside, the tomb appeared majestic, truly becoming of a great leader. Inside, as the millenniums passed by… not even dust remained
After munching on a few sandwiches, she inquired as to the business, how it had all begun and since when did he get involved with antiques. Chuckling discreetly, he answered that in a way, since he was a child, or that it could, somewhat, be considered that since always. Evidently, the conversation was held in English, which Alicia spoke perfectly, that in itself, constituted a pleasant surprise for Sir John, her host and the owner of the antique shop.
“You see, my dear Lady, it could be understood that I inherited this business from my father. In a way, I suppose that would make sense. He was the Curator, or was responsible for the British Museum, here in London, by the way. During his long career, first as an archaeologist and later, in charge of the museum, the institution flourished, and its collection grew enormously with important acquisitions from every corner of the Earth.”
“Well now, sadly, my mother, God rest her soul, died too young, scarcely a year after I was born. At the time, way before you were born,” he added, smiling gently, “my father was based in Egypt. He headed this archaeological dig, of importance in his field due to technical and scientific considerations, quite dull for those not initiated to these matters and which we could duly skip.”
“Allow me to mention, in the passing, that they were recovering a tomb built by one of the first Pharaohs of that great, ancient civilization that belonged to the so called Archaic Period. In his way, the ruler was responsible for joining the Great Egypt, known as the Upper Egypt to the Lesser Egypt, also called the Lower Egypt. Thus, his influence was pivotal in creating the conditions for the future development of this important civilization.”
“To be more precise, we are dealing with the Second Egyptian Dynasty, which lasted until the end of the Archaeological Period known as Naqada II. All these facts I am mentioning belong to 3,500 years BC.”
At this point, the gentleman laughed very subtly, and then added, “You see, my dear, as the son of a famous archaeologist, it is almost impossible not to delve in these tedious technical issues and typically lulls the sad listener into a deep slumber, almost immediately…”
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