Yaeger flipped through a dozen photos of the survey boat, the Nile shoreline, and some sonar records, then found a photo of Summer passing up an object from the water. The next showed a close-up of the tablet, still wet from the river.
“That’s it,” Summer said.
More typing came from Yaeger. “I just emailed it back to the three of you.”
“Hiram, while you have it up,” Dirk said, “could you have Max tell us what she thinks of it?”
“Sure,” Yaeger said. “Let me wake up the beast.”
In front of the video board, a striking woman suddenly appeared, dressed in a tight blouse and short skirt. A holographic image modeled after his wife, Max had been created by Yaeger as a user-friendly interface to the complex computer network.
“Good morning, Hiram,” the image said in a seductive voice. “You have company today?”
“Yes, Max, friends in Egypt.” He identified the group on the video call.
“Always a delight to have someone intelligent to talk to.” She turned to her creator and winked. “How may I serve you?”
“Take a look at this photo of a stone tablet that Summer recovered from the Nile off the ancient city of Amarna,” Yaeger said. “What can you tell us about it?”
Max looked at the photo while the computer scanned the image and compared it to an internal archive, followed by a search of dozens of academic and private research databases around the world. In seconds, she displayed a beaming smile.
“Congratulations, Summer,” she said. “You’ve made what appears to be a very ancient and most unique discovery.”
“Except for the fact it has since been stolen,” Summer said. “What can you tell us about it?”
“While not definitive, the slab appears to be made of alabaster, which can be found in numerous desert regions of Upper Egypt, and was used by the ancients in many of their structures and monuments. Though damaged, there is a clear representation of the sun in the manner used to depict the god Aten during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten. So it was likely carved during the Eighteenth Dynasty in the New Kingdom era, dating to approximately 1350 B.C.E.”
“Just what we hoped for, having found it at Amarna. Can you decipher the hieroglyphics?”
Max wrinkled her nose. “It appears to be a fragmentary piece from a larger slab or monument. Absent the full text, I can translate only the visible glyphs, which are somewhat inconclusive. As you can see, there are two sections of hieroglyphics. On the left, we have symbols in an upright oval. This is a standard cartouche, which typically signifies a royal name. In this instance, we have Princess Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti.”
“Was she buried at Amarna?” Zeibig asked.
“No. A surviving boundary stela—or marker—in Amarna describes tombs having been prepared for Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Meritaten, but they were never used. The mummy of Akhenaten has only recently been identified as the likely occupant of tomb KV55 in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes. No tomb or mummy has been found of Meritaten,” Max said, “which may be explained by the stone’s other inscription.”
“Go on,” Hiram said.
“The second section indicates it’s an homage or appeasement to the god Aten, in memory of the Pharaoh and others who died in Amarna from the tainted waters of the Nile. Princess Meritaten, absent from her father at his death, is condemned for providing aid to someone named Osa. Or at least that is the first part of his name, as the stone is fractured there. That’s all I can decipher from the visible glyphs.”
“That’s pretty dramatic,” Summer said. “I was expecting something more on the order of ‘King Tut Slept Here.’”
“That is an important note about Akhenaten dying from a river illness,” Zeibig said.
“It seems to relate to the mural and what Dr. Stanley said about a plague,” Dirk said. “Let’s see what Max can make of the tomb mural. Hiram, can you flip through a few more of Rod’s photos?”
Several dark photos appeared on the screen.
“There, stop at that one,” Zeibig said. “That’s the best shot of the entire mural before it was shot up. Max, what can you tell us about this image?”
Max seemed to squint at the video board as the computers in the back room processed the image with silent efficiency.
“Based on a comparison with other Egyptian burial sites, it relates to the tomb itself,” Max said. “There is a depiction of the deceased, a young boy, on a journey to the afterlife. A request is made,