The First and Last Scroll

Bernard Paul Badham's

Quark Books Online

Science Fact & Science Fiction

Science Fiction

TRILOGY BOOK TITLES UNDER THE SERIES

The Khed Seba & The Dark Lords of the Drage Medaal

Publication Details: Edited Manuscript

SAMPLE TEXT

Some Forgotten Time Ago

A solitary shepherd wandered in search of his goat herd across a rocky plateau amidst the strange and mystical stones of ages past. This was hallowed ground, sacred to his ancestors, where no mortal man should tread, but driven by need and want he ventured on, his flock his only fortune. Weak and hungry, his belly ached and his spindly rag adorned body faulted through the onslaught of the sudden ferocious sandstorm, bent by the suffocating heat and the grit in his face, he trod the sharp shrapnel ground, bare foot, mouth parched and eyes sand baked. He was fooled and tricked of his way, by those gods of old, etched by time and storm into strange and solid form, judges of man’s frail and feeble heart, they lumbered above his puny frame, daring his mortal trespass. Then darkness, like a smothering blackness falls, and crying winds and wailing, crumbling, ancient rocks, fill his soul with dread, but then by chance, or perhaps by fate, he stumbles upon a sheltered cleft to find an ancient door, which no man, nor beast, since time forgot had cast their envious eyes. A fool would dare, the brave and wise would run, but curiosity, and the lust of incorruptible metal, the Flesh of the Gods, seduced his hand to strike, the stone. Thunder, and quaking ground, and falling rock, are the divine answers to his untimely, earthly call, and he and his folly become entombed together, to leave the sacred, quiet once more.

CHAPTER 1

A Maze within a Maze

Little did he know, and few would have believed, that he was about to unleash a sequence of events which would change the course of his life and the whole of mankind’s forever, like a steel ball running through a forgotten maze, to find yet another, he would take a turn which would open up a
Pandora’s Box of a future uncertain and not yet written.

The ancient burial grounds of Saqqara, Egypt

Egyptologist Dr David Jefferson on the trail of the Lost Scrolls of Ancient Egypt, the Aegyptiaca, after studying many historical references and his translations of the enumerable ancient hieratic papyri stored in the vaults of the Cairo Museum was finally led to the ancient city of Alexandria, to the site of its lost library. Here timely and costly excavations of the library’s catacombs proved fruitless, for only fragments of buried papyri remained and none of these were the work of his elusive Manetho, the early Ptolemaic Egyptian priest and author of the sacred scrolls. Secondary excavations of the city’s Serapeum Library were just as futile, his research led him to London, to the site of an early Roman Serapeum, here under the foundations of a once magnificent temple he discovered collapsed ancient store rooms filled with broken wine jars and secular Demotic papyri of the temples trade transactions. Dr Jefferson was running out of funds and a concession from the Egyptian authorities to dig at the Old Kingdom pyramid complex of Saqqara, had proved difficult to obtain, eventually the Egyptian authorities capitulated after the sale of his London house which provided the necessary cash for the cost of the dig and the customary baksheesh.

Many weeks of organised, back breaking archaeology followed while working from numerous old documents, including a hand drawn map of a little known English eighteenth century traveller of the Middle East, the Reverend Richard Pococke, who had surveyed the area as far back as 1737 AD. Dr Jefferson’s suspicions were finally proved correct, on the south-west side of the Serapeum at Saqqara, which the ancient Egyptians dedicated to the worship of the god Serapis, he discovered a stepped entrance to the library’s catacombs and within a secret chamber he found an original copy of the Aegyptiaca.

This in itself was news breaking and one which had shaken the world of Egyptology to its foundation. The Aegyptiaca was a thirty volume work written by the Egyptian scribe Manetho. It had been written in Greek for the then Macedonian rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemys. The thirty scrolls contained an amalgamated account of the whole history of Egypt, its thirty dynasties of ruling pharaohs, and of Egypt’s ancient mythology and cult practices.

The discovery of the Aegyptiaca had brought world wide attention and an endless stream of visitors, Egyptologists, officials, media reporters and dignitaries, including royalty - all wanted a share in the limelight. The press and TV reporters were permanently camped outside the Serapeum’s catacombs, each media representative demanding an audience with the now famous Dr David Jefferson. It was at times nothing less than pandemonium and the Egyptian authorities did nothing to alleviate the problem, after all, they reminded him, this was a very good boost for Egypt’s waning tourism. The recent military activities in the Middle East after ‘September the Eleventh’ had hit Egypt’s tourism hard.
An over enthusiastic American CBS reporter stuck his microphone hard into Dr Jefferson’s face almost toppling him off the makeshift wooden pedestal he used on such terrifying occasions when addressing the press.

‘Are there any references to Moses in Egypt, Dr Jefferson?’ Before Dr Jefferson could draw breath to answer, a second reporter jostled for position and thrust his microphone forward.
‘What about the claim that the Aegyptiaca will change our whole perspective of world history?’
Dr Jefferson regained his balance and composure to answer when another reporter, this time from the BBC World News team, shouted, ‘What is your opinion Dr Jefferson on the idea that at last we will know the name of the pharaoh of the Exodus or at least the validity of the Biblical texts?’

An audible silence followed, many arguments had raged amongst world historians, theologians, academics and politicians about the impact these scrolls would have on society. They contained a complete account of early history as viewed and recorded by the ancient Egyptians themselves. After being commissioned by Ptolemy I in 300 BC to carry out the work, the Egyptian priest Manetho, religiously sought out as primary references all of Egypt’s ancient temple manuscripts to complete his work. The Aegyptiaca was a complete and authoritative historical document and one that would at last throw some light on our remote past. The Lost Scrolls of Ancient Egypt had been referred to many times by Greek and Roman historians, but their quotes from this sacred text were only fragmentary. Manetho’s writings had for a long time been thought lost to humanity. When Julius Caesar captured the city of Alexandria in 47 BC, the Great Library was burnt down destroying 700,000 historical documents, including Manetho’s Aegyptiaca. Any documents salvaged by the scholars and priests from the burnt remains were again lost when the secondary library at Alexandria’s Serapeum was rampaged by Christian zealots in 391 AD. Dr David Jefferson thought many times of the irony of this anti-pagan campaign initiated by the Byzantine Christian Emperor Theodosius I. Sacred documents which could validate the historical accuracy of the Bible were lost to mankind forever - that is until now.

‘In answer to your questions, yes, there are references to the Hyksos, the Semitic Shepherd Kings in Egypt, but as to Moses and the Exodus, that is another question and yes, it will change our whole world perspective, very much so. And again, yes, we will be able to verify the validity of the Biblical texts, but I must emphasise ladies and gentlemen, the texts have not yet been fully preserved, or translated. The sooner you let me get on with this work the more able I will be to answer your questions.’ With that Dr Jefferson stepped down from the pedestal and barged his way back through the crowd to the shelter of the heavily guarded catacombs......

...late at night he would return to the catacombs and to the translation of the sacred texts. That night, one particular translation troubled him.
‘You see Magdi, look here. There is a definite reference by Manetho to one of his Old Kingdom sources.’ Magdi stared at the unrolled papyrus and the point in the text where Dr Jefferson’s finger rested....

....Dr Jefferson dropped to his knees at the base of the wall eager to test his theory. ‘Pass me a hammer and chisel would you Magdi?’ he said pointing to a blue enamelled tool box sat open against the opposite catacomb wall. Magdi eagerly scampered to the box and rummaged inside returning with a heavy steel hammer and masonry chisel, the chisel was blunted at its tip from its regular pounding on hard stone. Just to the right of the point where the catacomb passagewy changed direction Dr Jefferson held the blade of the steel chisel against the wall and raised the heavy hammer. ‘If I’m wrong Magdi, then behind this plaster will be solid limestone rock, but if I’m right…?’

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Author

Bernard Paul Badham

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