Evelyn admired the apparent ease with which Roma was able to organize the dig, wondering if she had learned from years spent working with her father. To her, the logistics seemed almost overwhelming, but preparations were going well, diggers had been recruited from Luxor, water trucks were being ferried to the west banks of the Nile to provide fresh water for the workers for drinking and cooking. Camels had been acquired for short trips and a Land Rover chosen for her, Rick, and Ardeth to travel in.
"You don't seem intimidated by this," she told Roma, "I wouldn't even know where to begin."
"I've done it so many times. Father thought me such a good organizer that he depended on me to get the digs set up. We've worked with the same diggers for years; I know I can depend on Mohammed to keep things organized. I couldn't do this without him. I learned so much from Father but I never thought I would have to do this on my own."
A bus had been acquired for the transport of the workers in addition to the Land Rover. "I ought to travel with the workers," Roma fretted but Ardeth insisted that she ride with him and the O'Connell's. They would travel faster going by automobile, and the Land Rover performed well in the desert. They would reach the tomb before the others and decide how the camp would be set up, finding locations for the kitchens, the workers' tents, and the myriad little things that went with an archaeological dig.
The great ferries made deep rumbling noises as they transported the expedition's vehicles over the Nile. The buses, lorries, and Land Rover drove out of the bowels of the ship when they landed at the Valley of the Kings then began the journey northwards towards Radari near where Ardeth and Roma had discovered the entrance to the tomb.
Rick wanted to drive, but Roma had taken the wheel, not just looking for the location of the tomb, but feeling for it. The going was much faster in the vehicles but she still remembered every inch of the way that she and Ardeth had traveled by camel.
Around noon she brought her vehicle to a halt. "There," she pointed out, "You cannot see it at first, but once you spot it, you'll not miss it again." She put on her sunglasses and stepped out of the vehicle, and began to walk towards the cliff, Rick, Evelyn, and Ardeth following in her footsteps.
"There," she said and pointed to an opening in the red sandstone cliffs. Ardeth came and stood behind her, his strong arms encircling her slender waist. "I thought I'd never see this place again," Roma breathed.
Evelyn walked towards the opening, fascinated. "Evelyn, wait," said Rick, but his wife ignored him.
"Evelyn, come back," called Roma but she ignored her too and continued until she stood in front of the opening to the tomb. Just as she would put a foot inside, Roma hurried to her side and pulled her back.
"Not yet, Evelyn," she said and turned her away from the tomb, "Wait until the sun begins to set, there will be something you will want to see."
Reluctantly, Evelyn allowed Roma to lead her away from the tomb, but not without a look of longing at the black hole in the cliffs. This was what she had come to see, after all, and waiting now seemed agony.
She admired the way Roma and Mohammed set up the camp, seeming to find few obstacles. With Rick's help, the workman's tents were assembled, as was a cooking tent and a station to sieve the sand and debris that would be dug. Rick and Ardeth chose a few men with strong arms and temperaments and assigned them to act as security for the camp.
Their tents were placed where the least amount of sun would strike them during the day. There was no place in this desert free from exposure to the sun, but at different times one place might be freer from its rays.
A pavilion was set up, open to anyone who wished to take shelter under its roof. The two couples sat and drank gin and tonic, except for Ardeth who would drink only tea or water. It had been a tiring day, but the sun was starting to set, and the workers could be heard singing in front of their tents, enjoying these last hours of freedom before the work of excavation began.
Roma picked up two electric torches and handed one to Evelyn. "Now you will see what you needed to wait for, this is a surprise worth seeing. Come." She led her towards the opening in the cliff and entered the tomb.
Evelyn looked in amazement. Instead of being dark as she expected, the corridor was lit by the light of the setting sun, the rays beaming directly upon a carving of Set situated at the very end.
The carving covered most of the wall and the sun's ray hitting it made it seemed to glow in the dying sunlight. Evelyn walked slowly toward it, reaching out a finger to touch the delicate lines only to pull back her hand. To touch it now seemed a heresy.
"I've started to think that perhaps this carving was to represent Pentaweret in the likeness of the god Set," mused Roma, "I think he must have had enemies and was afraid that his grave would be desecrated so he chose to hide it here. It makes me wonder how long he and his mother plotted to assassinate Rameses III, this tomb was never finished but they may have started when he was a young boy. I wonder if he would have built a tomb in the Valley if he succeeded."
"Queen Tiye must have been very sure of herself to take such a risk. I wonder why she didn't kill the heir, too, that would have made sense. I always wondered what happened to her."
"There's no record of her fate but I would not but surprised if she was burned at the stake. That was the punishment for unfaithful wives, and you can hardly be more unfaithful than murdering your husband." Roma snapped her lantern off. "We should go, I smell food cooking and Ardeth's look is telling me he's ready to go back. I want another drink before dinner, and maybe another one after."
They went back to the camp where the workmen had built a fire and sang the praises of the great lady who would help them find rich discoveries and had offered to pay them so well. Two of them were performing dances that Evelyn had seen in an Egyptian nightclub, only the belly dancers had not danced so gracefully or so well.
Roma slept the sleep of the exhausted, but her dreams were uneasy and disturbing. The figure was back, taunting her, "You are in my country now," it said, "There is nothing here to protect you.
She opened her eyes and sat up, certain for a moment that it was standing in the corner of the tent. She sat up, waking Ardeth, who had no such dream, out of a sound sleep.
"What is wrong?" he asked, "Were you having a nightmare? Has this place brought back bad memories?" He put his bare arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him as if he would protect her."
"Maybe we shouldn't have come back, Ardeth, or maybe I am still afraid. I wish I had that reckless courage that Evelyn possesses. I pulled her back this afternoon because I was afraid, not because I wanted her to wait to see the carving until sunset."
Rick and Evelyn slept the sleep of the dead if the dead truly sleep. She, anyway, experienced no nightmares or uneasiness and woke refreshed in the morning.
There were still traces of dark blue in the pink morning sky, and the sun was not yet fully risen when the camp came to life. Smells of onions, lamb, eggs, and spices filled the air as the men emerged from their tents, ready to eat then start their day.
Rick, Ardeth, and the men they'd chosen began to patrol the perimeter of the camp, keeping an eye out for bandits, or rogue archaeologists who might try to claim their concession. Roma and Evelyn entered the tomb, now well-lit with torches and electric lights as the photographer sought the best angles to photograph the tomb walls. Outside the tomb entrance, two workers began sifting sand that had been removed from the tomb, searching for even the tiniest particles that might be important pieces of evidence.
"We've got to clear the floor; lord knows how many centuries of sand and dirt may be covering it," said Roma, "I don't see evidence of flash flooding, no concretions, no gravel, just sand blown in from the desert. Did you notice how strange the structure of this tomb is? Just the entrance shaft then a right turn to the main room, that's all. Princes and nobles didn't have the elaborate tombs of the Pharaohs, but this is still strange."
"What I don't understand," said Evelyn, "Is the complete absence of hieroglyphs. Not for the owner of the tomb, or even for members of the family. In one sense, this tomb is well thought out, but there were never any hieroglyphs carved on the wall—if there had been and they'd been removed we'd see signs of chipping."
"Or covering, like that coffin and mummy found in Queen Tiy's tomb*," Roma replied, "All we know is this one wasn't mummified and may have been found in the coffin he was put in. But how did his mummy and coffin find its way to the cache? I'm sure someone put him here, even if it had to be done in secret. Who was responsible, was it a wife? All I've found so far is a handful of beads and a few ushabtis, but someone could have loved him enough to see that his mummy was brought here, even with the goatskin wrapped around it."
The workmen were scooping up the sand and putting it in baskets to be sifted to reveal whatever treasures might be hidden. The sand, deeper than expected, was placed in baskets and a brigade passed it from digger to digger until it reached the sifting station outside of the tomb. So far, nothing had been found, but Roma intended to clear the floor from the inside out and nothing was likely to be found in the corridor.
Evelyn had set her task, she was clearing the sand around the sarcophagus to see if anything could be found. There was a chance, she told herself, that perhaps a piece of jewelry, or something, might be found that tomb robbers had dropped. She was already finding pieces of pottery shards although there were no markings to be found. If the robbers had been disturbed it was more than likely that they would have dropped pieces from their haul.
The diggers that Roma had assigned to help her patiently carried away baskets of sand to be sifted. She was taking a shortcut, although she knew better, the lidless sarcophagus was too tempting. She would clear an area to the floor around it, hoping to find artifacts that remained hidden in the depths of the sand.
It was tiring work, the sand must be cleared first with a trowel, then brushes used to remove the remnants that the trowel could not reach. She did not know what the sifters had found, but already she had found a broken blue faience ushabti, so she knew that her suspicions might be correct.
Penteweret might have murdered his father, but that did not mean he was unloved. He must have had wives and children who mourned for him in secret. Perhaps one of his wives had helped to have his body removed to this tomb where he could at least rest for eternity, despite the curses the priests had placed on him. And maybe some of his belongings had been transported in secret and placed in the tomb in the hopes that they would be useful in his afterlife.
The tip of her trowel struck something, perhaps nothing more than a stone or another potsherd, but Evelyn switched to her brush just in case. Carefully now, with brush and fingers, she began the painstaking task of smoothing away the sand from whatever it was.
The worker behind her could see it too and he pointed his lamp so that the beam shone directly on the object, and both could see the gleaming that the sand had originally concealed.
Evelyn was excited now and threw away all caution and good sense. She began to dig the object out with her fingers and soon revealed a squarish object which she gently cleaned with her camelhair brush.
When she realized what she had discovered she called for Roma. "Roma!" she cried, "Come here, come here, you must see this!"
Roma came running, careless of the workers and equipment. "What is it, Evie, what have you found?"
Evelyn handed it to her, a triumphant smile on her face, "I've found something that should not have been here, I think."
It was a two-inch square pectoral of solid gold, engraved with the cartouches of Rameses III. She was right, mused Roma, it should not have been there. Penteweret's mother had likely been executed so it may have been placed there by a sister or wife.
"Oh Evie," Roma breathed, "We'll probably not find anything else like this. The robbers would have cursed themselves if they'd known what they dropped. It looks like they left in a hurry, I wonder why? Did someone disturb them, or did something frighten them? Either way, this is the most valuable find from this tomb. Congratulations! I know it's early, but I think we deserve a drink."
*A little lesson in Egyptian archaeology. What I'm referring to is the infamous Tomb KV 55 in which pieces of a shrine (which would surround the pharaoh's sarcophagus and coffin) were found lying on the floor and a coffin on top of them. Eventually it was found to be the coffin and mummy of the Pharaoh Akhenaton, the infamous "Heretic of Akhenaton" (or Amarna as it is now called after where it was found).
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