My name is Chris and I am an archeological student at one of the more prestigious universities on the east coast. After my junior year, I was invited to intern at an archeological dig in Egypt and the events of that summer changed the way I thought about gods and incest.
After graduating high school, my parents were killed in an accident while traveling overseas. This left just my older sister, Beth who lives in Boston, and me. I was accepted to one of the Ivy League colleges, financing it through a scholarship and with my half of the estate money. I went to live with my older sister in this converted loft in the financial district and commuting to college.
Beth is about seven years older than me and through the terms of our parent's will, responsible for me until I was 21. We got along well as children although we did not interact much as teens. Beth is very tall, kind of thick but not overweight, with black hair cut above her neckline and has a rather high octave voice. Beth didn't look like any of our immediate family members and my father always said she was left at the doorstep by gypsies. She was the high school cheerleader and applied that same high energy level and enthusiasm in her career. After graduating college she took a job in the financial district of Boston. Beth used her share of the estate money to buy this loft close to work and spared no expense decorating it. We were more like friends sharing a place then brother and sister. With our schedules, we never saw each other much and overlooked each other's occasionally sleepovers either respective friends.
Towards the end of my junior year, one of my professors offered me a summer internship with his archeological project. Professor Grant knew of my interest in Egyptian archaeology and we had developed a good student teacher relationship over the last year or so. I immediately accepted and after Memorial Day, Beth was driving me to the Airport. She said she was going to miss me while I was gone but I didn't know if she was just being nice or really meant it. After a farewell kiss and hug, I was on a jet to Cairo. It was a long flight and I was very happy to see Professor Grant waiting for me in the Cairo Airport. We had something to eat then he drove me to the project which was somewhere between Cairo and Alexandria. I slept most of the way and woke up to this tent city in the middle of nowhere. My professor took me to my tent where I unpacked then slept again on a folding cot until morning.
The bright sunrise filtered through the tent and woke me up. I looked out of the tent and it reminded me of being at scout camp. There were rows of tents and people in shorts milling about. I recognized one of the senior students and he escorted me to the mess tent, pointing out the camp layout, especially where the latrines were. As I entered the mess tent, Professor Grant saw me and waved for me to come over. I sat next him as a local worker placed a plate of breakfast before me. Grant asked me how I liked the encampment so far and then explained more about the dig. Six months ago, a strong earthquake rocked this area and unearthed part of an ancient city. The Egyptian government invited Grant to participate with this international team to excavate the site. They have found that it is pre-dynasty Egypt which is more than 4,000 years BC and is the beginnings of ancient Egyptian culture. Even the Nile delta ran further south to where this city was once at the edge of a fertile agricultural area extending to the Mediterranean.
After absorbing his knowledge and breakfast, I was introduced to his team and put to work. Despite the glamorous image of archaeology from the movies, it is mainly sifting dirt and brushing away dirt to find pieces of pottery and the like. For three weeks, I moved dirt from one area to another hoping to find little bits of stuff which had archeological relevance. On the fourth week, I found something big in the pit that I was moving dirt from. I had removed about two inches of dirt when I came something hard. Normally you hit rocks large and small in a dig but this was stone which was different as it had a long edge with a smooth right angle. Before I got too excited, I removed more dirt from around the stone. So many times students thought they discovered something big and it was only a big rock in the ground. As I brushed away the dirt, I could see a flat surface extending down from the right angle and it had the beginnings of some very faint carving on it. I called over to Professor Grant who walked slowly and skeptically to my pit.
He examined the stone and agreed that it was more than just a rock. We spent the next four hours carefully brushing away the dirt. It was a part of a larger piece of stone tablet which had broke into pieces sometime in the last six or more millennia. It was about two feet across and a foot long with a row of carved hieroglyphics across the top and a faint image below it. Grant examined it closer and told me it was an image of Neeborus.
"I have never heard of that Egyptian god." I said.
"Neeborus is pre-dynasty and not much ws known about this god until about 1880." said Grant. "The first discoveries were done but British archeologists in about 1885. Neeborus was a sun god that over time evolved into Horus the sun god of the ancient kingdoms. Look closely and you will see a male and a female hawk head on one body facing opposite directions. You will learn more about Neeborus if you go for your master's degree. This was also a god of fertility and family life, especially for family life of the upper crust of society at that time. What would be the ruling class. It is thought that the worship of Neeborus lead to the intermarriage of family members, incest so to speak."
"Wow" I said, "Is this an important find?"
"Sort of" Grant smiled. "It is better than anything we have found so far but it's not King Tut's tomb. Certainly once the glyphs are translated; it may tell us more about Neeborus. That might be significant. There is so much guessing and myth over this deity than what we truly know."
"How so?" I asked.
"We know that many of the powers or beliefs associated with Neeborus were not associated to the later deity, Horus. Some went to lesser gods or became part of the culture and not attributed any god." said Grant.
"OK" I said, "But what about this speculation stuff?"
Grant said, "I'm coming to that. Around 1900 there was a group of ceremonial magicians in London who were the darlings of high society in Victorian England. Their leader thought he discovered a great magical revelation from a stele in the British museum. Namely Stele number 11437. It is one of the few artifacts on Neeborus in existence. He claimed, basically invented, many magical powers attributed to Neeborus and worked it into their magical philosophy and ceremonies. It introduced incest into the magical circles and quietly it spread through some of the upper classes of England at the time. These cults disappeared or went underground before the advent of World War II. They reappeared or were recovered around the 1960's in America and Western Europe. The stories spread and got bigger. People even claim that Hitler was a practitioner of Neeborus. There are many other cults who have adopted Neeborus like the Blue Sun people (see SOI Sedona Family). So anything we can find factual helps to tell the true story of this deity."
"Hard to imagine how one small and ancient item can get so much baggage attached to it." I said, "But it is like you taught us, religions evolve and change for many reasons. Large and small."
"I hope you decide to make archeological your profession." said Grant. "I really think that you would be very good at it. I would like to sponsor you for the master's program after your senior year. Anyway let's get some help and lift this from the pit."
"Thanks Professor for your offer. Let's talk more when the new semester begins." I said, "Let me get Bob and Ahmed to help us."
I climbed out of the pit and rounded up some help. Together the four of us maneuvered the stone from the pit and many from the encampment came by to see what we found. Grant and I were photographed with the stone then the stone was catalogued and sent to the Cairo Museum. After the day, it was back to the routine dirt removing and nothing special was found. It was the first week of August and I was beginning my last week of the internship. On Monday next week, I would be flying home. Being it was my last week I didn't work very hard in the pits. That morning I was back in the pit where I found the Neeborus stone and was digging on the shady side on the pit where it was cooler. I looked up in the sky and saw something unusual. There was a halo around the sun. It was like a circular rainbow that surrounded the sun. I looked curiously for a few minutes then it was gone. Then I looked down and a speck of green caught me eye.
