Chapter 2
Ray was tired as he walked the last couple of feet, following Ethan, to where the expedition was in the Taklamakan Desert. It had been a long day for him and Ethan. Professor Tseng had been able to get the two men on a plane out of JFK International Airport that night. Actually it had been yesterday, or was that Tuesday afternoon Ray thought to himself. Well it was something along those lines. Here in China it was Thursday morning, back home in New York it was Wednesday night.
The flight had been a little over forty hours with two stops. The first one was in Beijing where the pair had switched planes, and the next was in Urumqi. They finally landed early in the morning in Korla. Arriving at the hotel, hoping to find Melody and the expedition team, they were an hour too late. The team had left for the Loulan ruins already.
Ray's knee was killing him as he did his best to keep up with Ethan that day. Sitting for prolonged periods of time didn't help any. It had been all Ray could do to keep from crying out in pain as he transferred planes in Beijing, limping down the airports hallways. There had been little that he could do to stretch his leg inside the plane and he really needed a warm bath right now to relieve the soreness. Ray was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard yelling over the top of the hill in front of him.
Stopping at the top of the sandy hill that they had been walking up, Ray stood beside Ethan. Below them was the expedition team they had missed at the hotel that morning. Ethan had explained on the plane that Melody and her fellow archaeologists were only given a short period of time, by the Chinese government, that they could be in Loulan. The expedition was to be out of the area in two weeks time. Melody had ten days left and it clearly showed before Ray now.
The scene that he saw laid out before him was amazing. Out of the desert sand a town was emerging. Buildings, houses, roads that had been uncovered long before Melody and her team had gotten there, were being worked on. Melody's team was digging deeper into the sand. The expedition was working in four different areas of the town. Each team, in their certain area, was carefully unfolding back the sands of time to find artifacts, animals, and people.
"The deeper into the sand and dirt you dig, the deeper into the past you go," Melody always said to Ray.
Off to the right side of the town, up against a mountain, Ray could see the top of a metal ladder reaching out of a hole. This was the newly discovered tomb that Melody had told Ray they had found when she called about Nokomis disappearance. Cursing could now be heard, coming out of the hole. Ray smiled and followed Ethan down the hill and into the site. Ray knew that voice. It was Melody's and from the tone of it she was probably scolding out a student right now.
As the pair neared the ladder a figure could be seen rising up out of the hole. Yep, Ray had been right, it was a student and a young one at that. Looking to be barely over the age of twenty with sandy blond hair and blue eyes, the student looked out of place. Her designer jeans and expensive boots were covered in sand and she was muttering to herself, "I should have stayed in New York."
Ethan laughed out loud, when he heard her, as he and Ray came to a stop at the top of the ladder.
"If you stayed in New York you would have missed all the fun," Ethan told the student.
"I didn't want to be here in the first place," she said as she stepped off of the ladder and onto the ground. "My parents made me come."
Walking away she jerked a thumb over her shoulder and told Ethan, "I wouldn't go down there if I were you. Professor Stantz is on the war path today."
Ethan turned towards Ray. "So," he said, "who wants to go first into the lion's den?"
"I'll go," Ray said taking his backpack that he was wearing off and setting it on the ground. Ray walked over to the ladder and handed Ethan his cane. "I'm the one she's mad at right now anyways. Ethan when I get to the bottom toss me my cane," Ray called as he started down the ladder and into the hole.
When Ray reached the bottom of the hole Ethan tossed Ray's cane down to him and a flashlight that he dug out of his own backpack he was wearing. Turning on the flashlight, Ray saw only one way to go and that was to his left. Following the narrow ten meter long tunnel, Ray could see light ahead of him as the tunnel opened up into a chamber. It was cooler underground and Ray wished he had brought his sweater with him from his backpack.
"I told you to go back to the hotel!" the occupant of the chamber spat at Ray, the woman's back towards him. "You don't even know the difference between wool and silk. I can't use you. I really need…," she trailed off and placed a hand on the wall she was standing in front of.
"Nokomis," Ray finished for her, stopping before he reached the chamber. "I really could use her too Melody."
Professor Melody Stantz turned around surprised to see her husband standing in the tunnel. When she had called Ray she had her doubts that he would even come. Twelve years younger in age than Ray, Melody was a beautiful woman with curly, dark brown hair that hung to her shoulders and emerald green eyes. She was not tall, only an inch shorter than her husband, with a round face and small lips, but her temper was a cosmos unto itself. This Melody used often with her students who she considered incompetent at what they knew they should be doing.
"Raymond?" she questioned, figuring her eyes were playing tricks on her.
"Yea, it's me," Ray replied walking into the chamber.
Looking around Ray could see mural paintings on the wall behind his wife. They looked to represent the ongoing struggle for survival in a long dead society that time forgot.
"Melody, I'm sorry about Nokomis," Ray said coming to a stop before her, his flashlight pointed to the ground so as not to blind her with its ray. "Has there been any word?"
"No," Melody said hanging her head, "it's my fault she's gone you know."
"Why do you say that?"
Melody raised her head towards her husband. "Because I raised my voice to her and disagreed with her."
"What did you disagree over?"
"Here," Melody said turning away from Ray, "I'll show you."
Following Melody's flashlight that she held in front of her, Ray came to a narrow opening in the chamber's wall that he didn't see before. Melody stopped before a slit in the wall leading off of the main chamber.
"Raymond," Melody said as she turned sideways and slid into the opening, "you are going to have to squeeze through. I hope you can fit with your 'extra padding'."
Ray looked down at his stomach. He had let himself get out of shape these past few years and Melody knew it. Ray loved to jog and would take off with his young daughter every morning when she was home to jog around Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx close to their home. But that all changed when he got his knee replaced. He was unable to jog then and in turn he had started to gain weight. That hadn't helped the joints in his body or his artificial knee. Doctor Strauss now needed to go in and replace the parts of Ray's knee that were breaking down. The surgery was scheduled for February of next year.
"In that time I need for you to lose some weight or we are going to be right back where we started," Doctor Strauss had told Ray.
Taking a deep breath, Ray sucked in his 'extra padding' as Melody called it and slid into the opening, hoping that he wouldn't get stuck. A short time later Ray felt the end of the passage and squeezed out.
Shocked Ray stood there looking at the burial chamber before him. The tomb was built from rock with wooden support beams around the sides. Actual graves, covered with stone, were along the walls. Pictures were painted onto the walls and ceiling of the room. Among all of this were artifacts. Tools and wooden pieces sat on a table to Ray's left, while coins and jewelry sat on another to his right. Ray could see pottery and glassware, along with hair combs at the end of some of the graves. Ray knew that these were personal possessions and were intended to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife. Something caught Ray's eye as he swung his beam of light around the room. A flash of metal.
Ray moved further into the burial chamber as his wife stood still smiling at him. She knew what had caught Ray's attention. It was the first thing that she had seen too when she had entered the room. Bronzeware. In this case a bow and arrow tips made out of bronze material were sitting at the foot of one of the graves.
"Melody," Ray said moving towards the grave, "is this…"
"Bronze," Melody interrupted, "Yes, Raymond it is."
Ray turned to look at his wife where she stood by the entrance. "So, have you dated it yet?"
"Yes," she replied.
"And?" Ray asked turning back to the grave.
"The other artifacts in the room are roughly around the time of the Xia Dynasty," Melody stated walking towards Ray. "Even the burial chamber suggests a certain town cemetery. A place where the local people were buried regardless of their religious beliefs."
"Xia Dynasty? Remind me when that was again Melody."
"2100 - 1600 B.C."
Ray had bent over the grave and was looking at the bow and arrow tips as Melody was speaking to him. Something wasn't right with what Melody had said to him just now. The Xia Dynasty wasn't what China considered its bronze age, was it?
"Melody, the Xia Dynasty wasn't…"
"Yes, Raymond," Melody said interrupting him again, "the bronze age wasn't until the Shang Dynasty. This proves that Xu Xusheng was correct."
"Xu Xusheng was the president of Beijing Normal University in the 1930's and single-handedly discovered the Erlitou culture in 1959," Melody told Ray stopping before him. "The Erlitou culture was an early bronze age urban society that existed in China during the Xia Dynasty. Mr. Xusheng discovered a bronze smelting workshop among the ruins. But most archaeologists remain unconvinced of the connection between the Erlitou culture and the Xia Dynasty since there are no extant written records."
"This also proves that my theory is correct," Melody finished as she started to remove the stones from the grave that Ray was at.
"What you can't see down here is that the passage into the first chamber is aligned in such a way that the sun shines into it at a significant point in the year. For example at sunrise on the winter solstice or at sunset on the equinox."
Melody continued to remove the stones as she spoke to her husband. "This burial chamber is consistent with passage graves along the Atlantic façade of Europe and this man proves it."
Melody had started at the man's feet and was working her way up. As she removed each stone, brushing the sand away from the grave with her hand brush, Ray could see a person's body appearing and it was fully dressed. Roughly about six feet tall, the man had reddish brown hair, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. He was wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. The condition of the corpse was well preserved and if Ray didn't know any better he could have sworn that he was looking upon someone who had died a few years ago. But what was most impressive was that the man was of European looking descent.
"Melody…," Ray tried to speak, unsure of himself and if his eyes were playing tricks on him in the dark. "That man doesn't look Chinese to me."
"No, he doesn't. And if I had all the money in the world to bet, I would place him as a Celt. His bronze bow and arrow tips prove it to me. This is significantly earlier than what Chinese people have been led to believe about bronze work developing inside China separately from outside influences, and it is an important discovery. It proves that bronze was imported rather than discovered independently in China. It shows that the Silk Road was a route of transmission, a sort of modern day interstate highway, from the west to the east bringing with it new discoveries and people."
"So is this what you were disagreeing with Nokomis over?"
"No Raymond. Nokomis helped me take some muscle tissue samples for DNA testing to be done back home. She agreed with my findings. We disagreed over this man."
Melody got up from the ground where she had been squatting before the Celt man's grave. Turning to her right she walked over to the corner of the burial chamber, Ray followed her in the dark with his flashlight. Something was hiding under another wooden table that he hadn't seen when he came in. Stopping and squatting down Melody shined her light on the object.
"Nokomis found this one," Melody said as Ray stopped and shined his light under the wooden table too.
The object was a mummy and this one looked to be more Chinese in character. The man was sitting with his knees to his chin and arms wrapped around his legs. Ray could only see his right side as his left side was up against the stone wall of the burial chamber. He wore what looked like black pants and a blue kimono. Around his right wrist was a jade bracelet.
"This one is out of place here," Melody told Ray. "As you can see his face is clearly Chinese. The jade bracelet looks to be a Buddhist nenju; prayer beads for a beginner on the path to enlightenment. The kimono is blue silk, usually meaning someone from a high position, but the four-diamond emblem there…," Melody said as she shinned her light on the left breast of the garment, "…doesn't make sense to me. I've never seen or known ancient or modern Chinese to do this."
"Then maybe he isn't Chinese," Ray said turning his face towards Melody. "You said so yourself. This is like the town graveyard. So this man was buried here like the rest."
"But Raymond look," Melody pointed with her left hand, "he wasn't buried at all. He is clearly hiding from something or someone. At least Nokomis thought so."
Ray turned to look closer at the man. Clearly he looked to be frightened, but from what? What had happened all those centuries ago? Ray heard a soft thud and looked to his left to see his wife sitting in the sand. She was trying to hold back her tears. Carefully Ray placed his left hand on her right shoulder and sat down beside her.
"Melody please tell me what happened here," Ray said quietly to her. He needed answers and Melody was holding back.
Melody let a tear fall from her face as she told her husband what had happened.
"Nokomis found this man when she was drawing a map of the burial chamber for me. She is a wonderful drawer you know. He is clearly malnourished, you can see it in his arms, but I knew that he was 'planted' for me to find."
"Planted?" Ray asked.
"Yes. I've come across this twice, this man makes three. Someone in the Chinese government doesn't want the truth to be uncovered and so they 'plant' or 'bury' Chinese people where an expedition is going to be digging. To throw us off of the track so to speak."
"Okay, I understand, but why here? Why not out in the other chamber? Just getting into this chamber is hard enough for me, let alone our friend here who can't even walk, all hunched up over there."
"That's what Nokomis asked too," Melody replied wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her tan shirt.
Melody continued, "After Nokomis drew his picture she climbed under the table to get a closer look."
"What did she find?"
"A sword," Melody said, her voice a little frightened in tone Ray could tell. "Two of them in fact, attached by a red sash of some kind to his left side. Nokomis removed them from the sash and brought them out for me to see. One was longer than the other one and looked to be made of iron."
"Iron?" Ray questioned taking his hand from his wife's shoulder to point behind him. "Over there we have bronze and here…," Ray brought his finger in front of him, "…we have iron. That doesn't make sense."
"It does if the mummy was 'planted'. I told Nokomis that."
"So that's what you were disagreeing over?" Ray asked. "One side of the room you have B.C. artifacts and this side of the room you have…," Ray trailed off and then asked his wife a question.
"What century is he in?" Ray asked pointing a finger at the man under the wooden table.
"Nokomis thinks 16th century and she doesn't think he is from China either."
"Where does she think he is from?"
"Japan, and his swords proved it. Nokomis believed he was a samurai and was probably running from the shogunate. He probably found his way inside here to hide some centuries later, after my Celt man was buried."
"Where are the swords now?" Ray asked, "Can I see them? Maybe Nokomis is right."
"Nokomis took them after I raised my voice to her, telling her that she didn't know what she was talking about."
"Maybe she does Melody. She is a smart kid."
"Raymond she hasn't even graduated from High School yet," Melody replied getting angry, dropping her head into her hands and crying she finished, "And now she never will."
Movement and voices could be heard in the other chamber.
"Professor Stantz, Doctor Stantz, where are you?" a voice called out.
Melody got up from the ground, wiped her eyes, and dusted herself off. She held out a hand to Ray to help him up as she replied to the voice.
"We're coming, we are inside the burial chamber. Give me a minute to cover up the Celt mummy first."
"Please hurry Professor Stantz they found Nokomis's backpack," the voice replied.
Ray looked at his wife as the color drained from her face. Quickly he helped her cover the mummy back up and followed her out of the burial chamber, afraid of what he might find.
