Chapter 85: The Half Stonemarker

Professor Jacques' reprimand forced Dr. Sherif to retreat and back down, but he continued to shoot angry glances at Liang En from time to time.

To avoid this vexing gaze, Liang En excused himself after translating the current batch of content. He then joined Fan Meng, who was searching for supplies in the camp.

"I finally understand why that guy is still just an assistant researcher in his forties," Liang En summarized the recent events briefly, and Fan Meng commented.

Since Fan Meng's responsibilities included safeguarding Liang En's safety as his childhood friend, he had collected publicly available information about everyone in the team beforehand. So, as soon as Liang En mentioned the situation, Fan Meng had a fairly accurate idea of what was going on.

"This Sherif is a second-generation immigrant like us, but unlike those of us who preserve our ethnic identities, he belongs to the assimilationist group. In the context of our Chinese heritage, he's what you'd call a standard ABC—someone fervently adopting the culture of the host country."

"Actually, his behavior reflects how those old Europeans view you," Fan Meng continued, "After all, Egyptology can be considered a strong suit of Europe, and it's hard for them to accept a non-professional Asian achieving such results."

"Of course, all he can do is criticize you verbally or online. You don't need to worry about safety issues. At least, according to the information I found, that guy is just a typical keyboard warrior."

"You're right, and I'm not bothered by it," Liang En shrugged indifferently and then asked, "By the way, did you find anything valuable here?"

"I found some stone blocks with carvings, but they mostly seem to be fragments," Fan Meng replied, gesturing toward the walls and floor of the tent.

As Fan Meng had mentioned, the craftsmen who built this castle in the past were concerned only about the size of the stones and didn't care much about the content carved on them. Consequently, the content on these stones was disorderly and lacked consistency.

After a brief translation, Liang En discovered that the content was quite scattered, including a partial list of temple offerings and a description of a scene from a certain war.

Evidently, these items must have come from various ruins and were randomly combined together.

After translating all the exposed content, Liang En and Fan Meng expanded their search. Considering that the craftsmen of the past might have placed the inscribed sides facing inward, they began inspecting objects that resembled stone markers.

Soon, in one room, they found something interesting on the floor. It was a semicircular stone, and the precise curvature of its upper half indicated that it had been meticulously carved.

Clearly, such intricate craftsmanship wasn't necessary for a mere stone floor. Thus, this stone was likely scavenged from some ruin by the builders back in the day.

"This thing looks like half of a stonemarker," Fan Meng speculated as he brushed away the dirt from its surface with a broom.

An intriguing fact was that while different civilizations had diverse developmental paths, most of them designed stonemarkers with an upper circular section and a lower rectangular section.

As such, upon seeing the stone on the ground, which was roughly the size of a large computer screen, Fan Meng's immediate assumption was that someone had used the half-stonemarker as a brick to pave the floor.

"Your deduction is quite reasonable," Liang En commented after a glance, "If this stone were thicker, the group of builders might have used it for constructing the walls. So, it's likely a relatively thin slab."

"Moreover, considering the fine texture and meticulous polishing of the stone, it's highly probable that this originated from some dismantled stonemarker of unknown origin."

With this determination, they began to excavate. Fortunately, the construction of the castle had involved minimal use of mortar for the flooring, allowing them to easily unearth the stone from the earth.

The stone was almost 30 cm thick, slightly over 70 cm in width, and nearly half a meter in length—appearing to be the upper part of a stonemarker.

Turning it over, they found engravings on the stone's circular top, depicting the wings of an eagle, a cobra, the sun, and the images of ancient Egyptian deities. These designs indicated a high rank for the stonemarker, most likely associated with royalty.

In the tradition of ancient Egypt, pharaohs were seen as embodiments of the sun god. So, the carving of the sun at the center of the marker suggested that it either held royal decrees or documented certain actions of the monarchy.

As the stone was made of granite and had its inscribed side facing downward as it lay on the floor, the text on the upper surface was fairly well-preserved. After cleaning off the dust, they discovered eight lines of hieroglyphic script.

"Let me see what's written on it." Dragging the stone from the dim room into the sunlight of the castle courtyard, Liang En began translating the text. By now, a number of people had gathered around to watch.

"—The rightful heir to the throne of Egypt, a devout follower of the gods, the rebuilder of the Egyptian kingdom and preserver of human civilization, unconquerable, the bringer of prosperity to Egypt for thirty years, the master of Upper and Lower Egypt, son of Ra, the eternal one, the beloved child of Ptah, King Ptolemy—"

All of this was written in the hieratic script of ancient Egypt. Drawing on his knowledge, Liang En quickly translated the content and recited it aloud.

However, due to the fragmentary nature of the inscription, the information he gleaned from the stonemarker was limited to that of a Ptolemaic dynasty king's donation to a temple.

"You're fabricating this based on the Ancient Greek inscriptions found on donations made by various Ptolemaic kings to temples, aren't you?" A grating voice interrupted the attentive silence.

"Well, since no one here understands what these ancient Egyptian texts actually say, all you need to do is replace one or two names of the pharaohs inside the circular part with the name of the king in power, and you can craft a seemingly plausible inscription."

"Dr. Sherif, I'll reiterate: you can criticize my mistakes, but I expect you to present reasonable arguments rather than resorting to personal attacks."

Since the other party brought this discussion into the public sphere, Liang En had no intention of preserving Dr. Sherif's pride.

"The translation I provided earlier was heard by everyone present, and the stonemarker is right here," Liang En pointed to the stone lying on the ground, "So, please point out my mistakes!"

Upon hearing Liang En's challenge, all attention shifted to Dr. Sherif.

Although the bystanders were unaware of the underlying conflict between the two, humans had a natural inclination to enjoy spectacle. Thus, all eyes focused on them.

"The widely accepted belief now is that ancient Egyptian scripts consist solely of ideograms used for their meanings, while you claim that some of these inscriptions are phonetic."

As all eyes were on him, Dr. Sherif first faltered slightly and then began to defend himself with sophistry.

"While your proposition can indeed translate parts of the content, your interpretation remains speculative without further corroborating evidence. I just don't want you to lead everyone astray based on unverified claims."

With the tension thick in the air, the two scholars continued their debate amidst the audience's rapt attention.