Tiahuanaco
Part 4
"But it doesn't mean anything!" Daniel threw his books down in frustration. Looking at the wall again, he slowly traced his fingers along the finely carved images. He recognized practically nothing. The pyramid that housed the small paradise they had discovered had, Daniel decided, been built a lot later than anything within it, as if it were to protect the discovery…or hide it.
Grunting in frustration, he lay his head against the tree behind him, "Why can't ancient civilizations just leave dictionaries."
"Now where would the fun in that be?" Daniel looked up and smiled as Kaitlyn sat down opposite him.
"Fun? Try torture."
"You love every minute of it, and you know it." She replied smiling.
Looking at her sidelong, he gave a small laugh, "I know, but that doesn't mean I don't get frustrated."
"'Course, that's your prerogative. You might have discovered the meaning of life, you're allowed a tantrum here and there."
"I'm not having a tantrum!"
Kaitlyn laughed at him and turned to look at the wall, "So what have you discovered?"
"Well I don't think these are all Earth languages," he said indicating some of the pictograms, "But they don't seem to follow any pattern. It's almost as if all the languages have been mixed up. And compared to a lot of these artifacts, I'd say that this writing was added a lot later."
"Like the Pyramid?" Kaitlyn asked and Daniel frowned at her.
"I never told you that."
Kaitlyn smiled, "You're not the only one with a degree in archeology."
"You're an archeologist?"
"Come on, tell me what you've discovered."
Daniel frowned before he turned back to the wall, "Well, this is the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph Akh or Akhu. It…eh it means being of light or horizon dweller to name a few of the interpretations. Akh was used as an…an honorific title of the Shemsu Hor in Egypt. These were the followers of Horus. Akhu Shemsu Hor was the full title. It was given to the mysterious cult of divine kings that was believed to have ruled the Nile Valley for thousands of years before the first Pharaoh of the first historical dynasty took the throne."
"So what's the significance?"
"I…I have no idea."
Kaitlyn laughed and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, you're smart, you'll figure it out."
"Wish I could be so sure."
"What else did you decipher?"
"Well this is the Ankh. It's the 'cross' or 'key' of life…"
"A symbol for eternity." Kaitlyn finished.
"Yes. But Again, I don't know why it's here." He sighed, "I also noticed this." Standing, he led Kaitlyn back towards the entrance where Teal'c still stood. During his explanation, both Sam and Jack had wandered over and began to listen to him. They all followed Daniel to the entrance where he stood and pointed upwards.
Looking towards the center of the brightly-lit room, they saw a large stone archway about 25 feet above the center stone. Vines and other plant life covered it, and carved into it was what looked like, from their distance at least, a figure holding a staff in each hand.
"Viracocha." Kaitlyn said softly.
"Yes." Daniel replied looking at her, "It backs up my theory that this is Taypicala."
"I thought you said this was Tiahuawhatever?" Jack said turning.
"Do you ever listen to me?" Daniel began to shake his head, "You know what…I don't want to know. Taypicala is the ancient name for Tiahuanaco."
"Oh."
Sam smirked and turned back to look at the archway, "So what's the significance of this Vira…cocha?"
"The Gateway God of Tiahuanaco is believed to be an image of Viracocha." Daniel began, still looking up and walking slowly towards the center stone. "The figure is on top of a plinth at the eastern side of the Gateway in the form of a step pyramid. There's a theory that this is representative of the ancient Egyptian Benben stone and maybe even a map of the Apakana Pyramid itself."
"The Apakana Pyramid is in Tiahuanaco?" Sam asked.
"Yes."
"OK."
After a few moments silence, Jack looked at the others. Teal'c had again returned to looking away from them, out into the Pyramid's corridors and the others, including Kaitlyn were still staring at the stone archway.
Clearing his throat to get their attention, Jack walked towards the center stone, "Well folks, you have another hour before we need to head back so if you want to learn anything else, I suggest you get moving." Finishing he leaned on the stone at the center. Suddenly his hand slipped off, as its texture became smooth. There was a clicking sound followed by the noise of stone grinding against stone.
"I didn't do it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slowly they walked towards the small opening. The noises had stopped after a few minutes and after prying Daniel away from the Center Stone, they had decided to investigate. Still not wanting to force Teal'c to set foot on his sacred ground, although the Jaffa had offered, Jack, Sam, and Kaitlyn entered, followed by Daniel, who was taking the opportunity to look at every little detail as if they each held the key to the meaning of life.
They room was lit dully in the same manner as the hallways of the pyramid. Although, like the main room of Tiahuanaco, the contents seemed to have been there long before the surrounding pyramid. Looking into the room, all eyes rested on the spotlighted object in the center.
"Looks a bit like a sarcophagus to me." Jack said as the SG1 members cautiously approached.
"No, this is definitely not the same Egyptian style as the ones we've seen and used. I mean it might do the same thing for all I know, but this bears more of a resemblance to the one found in…I think it was in Southern America somewhere, in a large structure. Everything was built by an ancient civilization and everything was symmetrical…I don't really know that much about it."
"The Jade mask."
Daniel turned to face Kaitlyn, as did Jack and Sam, "Yes. Something to do with the dots and lines making a play."
"A play?" Jack stared back and forth between them, his eyebrows raised.
"Yes." Kaitlyn stepped forwards slightly,
"I think I've heard of this." Sam said trying to think of why the subject sounded familiar.
"I don't know all that much about it, but when they discovered a particular room within the structure, they discovered what looked a bit like this," she indicates the sarcophagus like object in the center of the room, "It was a surprise to archeologists everywhere as it didn't fit."
"Didn't fit?" Sam asked, stepping towards the girl, who again stepped away from her slightly. Sam looked at the ground slightly dejected as the girl continued rather nervously.
"Yes. It wasn't symmetrical. The ends had been cut off the cover stone and the random lines and parts of pictures engraved into it seemed to make no sense. It wasn't until one particular man took a rubbing of it and as he was lifting it, the paper was turned by a few degrees and he noticed that the lines joined up to make pictures. He began to turn the rubbing by a few degrees again and noticed that the lines joined up to make yet more pictures. Turns out that there was an entire play engraved in the one cover stone."
"Wow." Sam had looked up again as the girl had continued to explain. She frowned, "What about this jade mask then?"
"Well," Daniel continued, "When they removed the cover stone, the…uh occupant, was wearing a mask made from pure jade. The only thing on it was a few dots I believe. And if I'm not mistaken when he applied the same technique, they discovered another play."
Kaitlyn nodded, "Yeah. The guy even bows at the end."
"I know where I've heard this from." Sam said, her face suddenly lighting up, "The man also discovered some random numbers and he put them on the Internet to see if anyone knew what they were."
"Yeah," Kaitlyn continued, "He couldn't figure it out, so he wanted to know if anyone else could."
"I did."
"You mean you figured it out?" Daniel asked astonished.
"Yes. The numbers were the exact date and time that the magnetic core of the Earth turned." Sam said, seeing at the astonished look on Daniel's face, "The poor guy didn't know what he'd done when the military turned up at his door."
"Let me get this straight." Jack said walking into the small group that had formed during the conversation, "A bunch of ancient guys built a symmetrical tomb only to put something unsymmetrical inside it. They built a sarcophagus thingy and engraved a play on it as well as some jade mask. They also managed to figure out when North was gonna become South."
"In simple terms, yeah I guess so." Daniel replied.
"Ancient people had way too much time on their hands."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"OK people time to…" There was a loud crash. "Damn it!"
"Jack! What the hell are you doing now?" Daniel sighed as he walked towards the direction of Jack's muffled cry, "Where are you?"
"Colonel?" Sam wandered around the corner.
"Down here." Looking down they could see Jack stranded in the middle of a large pit that had obviously been covered by the growth of plant life. Daniel turned to his left when he heard a snort. Kaitlyn was perched on a rock laughing into her hand. Daniel tried to look at her sternly but found that he couldn't remove the smile from his lips. Turning to look at Sam he could see her fighting back laughter as well.
"Sir," she choked out, "We'll have you out of there…well as soon as we can."
"Just because I can't see you Captain, doesn't mean I don't know your giggling up there."
"Sorry Sir. You just seem to have an affinity with the pits on this planet." Laughing, Sam turned to Daniel and together they tried to find something to pull the Colonel from the pit. After a few minutes, Daniel turned around and frowned.
"Eh…Sam, where's Kaitlyn?" Turning to look at the rock, she also noticed the girl's absence. Daniel walked around the rock and looked towards the fountain that he had earlier discovered her sitting at, "Kaitlyn?"
"How the hell did you get in here?" Daniel and Sam turned to look down into the pit only to see Jack staring down Kaitlyn.
"Back door." She replied and walked away. After a few moments Jack followed. Sam and Daniel turned and watched as Jack and Kaitlyn appeared to walk out from under the fountain.
"How did you know about that?" Daniel asked.
"Sorry, that's classified." Kaitlyn walked over to her pack and lifted it with ease, placing it on her back.
After composing himself, Jack turned to the others, "Well people, lets move out."
As they collected their things, Sam looked around wistfully at the utopia they had discovered. She sighed and walked towards the group, "Can't wait to come back." She said as they walked towards the exit, "I'm really curious about the light source for this room. These plants are still alive, they must get nourishment from somewhere."
"Look up." Kaitlyn said, never slowing down.
"Huh?" Sam looked up and all she could see were the treetops, "All I can see are trees." She walked to her left and to the edge of the tree line and looked up.
"Wow."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PART 4
