Dr. Mark Rogers was a gruff man in his fifties who was a veteran of dozens of excavations in remote parts of the world. He skin was leathered from countless hours under the sun, and he kept his head shaved for ease of maintenance in the field. He wore a wide brimmed straw hat and a safari shirt whose pockets were filled with his favorite tools. Even without knowing about his six academic degrees, it would not be hard to identify him as an expert in his field.
He arrived at the site, driving a beaten up rented Land Rover that was at least as old as he was. His four graduate students assembled to meet him, standing like soldiers on review. Rogers was very old schooling that he demanded deference from those who learned at his knee.
Melissa Haakonsen was the senior student at the site and served as foreman in Rogers' absence. A year away from graduation, her work on this excavation in remote Tajikistan was the subject of her dissertation. In truth,Rogers had taken her on as a student because of her large-chested Nordic good looks, but she had proved herself to be a hard worker and insightful scholar.
John Martinez was Melissa's boyfriend. A year behind her, he was not the most original thinker. Rogers saw him working in a county archaeological office, as a minor bureaucrat, at best. Still, the lanky 26 year old had a cheerful, upbeat attitude that helped keep the team's morale up. It was not hard to see what Melissa saw in him.
Rogers hated to admit it, but Hannah Liang was most similar to him in terms of temperament. The slight Asian first-year, only 21 years old, showed no sign of a sense of humor. Focused like a laser on her studies, Hannah was the only student who did all of the optional reading. While Rogers liked the thought of Melissa as a future colleague one day, in Hannah he saw the seeds of a future rival.
Rogers took on first-year Kevin Lacey as a favor to a colleague, and he suspected that he had been duped in the process. Kevin had a 4.0 average, but he was the kind of bright-eyed Christian who saw the hand of God in everything and carried a guitar with him everywhere in case anyone should one day want to join him in a sing along of spiritual music. Rogers wondered why the other students hadn't murdered him yet.
Rogers quickly surveyed the first phase of the site. He then turned to Melissa.
"So what are your initial thoughts on the site stratigraphy?"
Melissa balked just a bit. "Sir, the preliminary report I sent…"
Rogers cut her off. "I know what's in the report. You did a good job of presenting an evidence-based analysis. I'm interested in hearing your hypotheses. Hell, throw in some wild speculation, if you can link it to the evidence."
Melissa was pleased at the slight praise Rogers offered. She stood even more at attention. Rogers tried not to stare at the way her posture made her large, perky tits stand out even more.
"We'll, I'm confident that we can declare the site the easternmost Hellenistic settlement yet discovered. I'm also pretty sure this was primarily a site of ritual significance. The cisterns and dried up spring suggest to me that this was the center of a fertility cult."
Rogers nodded approval. Then he pointed to the slightly deeper excavations nearby. "And this new phase you have uncovered?"
Melissa nodded over to Kevin. He was the one who discovered the older remains under the Greek-inspired temple. It was only fair to let him report and offer his ideas.
"It's another pagan worship site," the young evangelical said. Rogers winced the the word "pagan," glad his sunglasses hid his disappointment. "I think it was already very old when Alexander's army arrived. At least Aryan, but I think it may actually date to the Harappan civilization."
"And the remains under those? How do you account for what is obviously the roof of a dome right there?"
The four students looked at him quizzically, trying to see what he was pointing at. Hannah was the only one reckless enough to challenge their professor.
"With all due respect, Sir," she said in her usual monotone. "The Harappans are the oldest known civilization. And the ability to construct domes would not be known in this region until at least a thousand years after their civilization declined."
"Five points for Gryffindor," Rogers muttered. Honestly, the little know-it-all got under his skin sometimes. "But perhaps you can explain this…" He grabbed a spade and bounded into the trench the students had excavated. Within minutes, he had dug through the rubble to what was clearly the outside of a dome made of worked stone.
"I guess it's not Harappan, then," Kevin said dejectedly.
Rogers' eyes lit up. "No, you were right! We've discovered evidence of an advanced civilization that was here at least five centuries before the Harappans piled one rock atop another. John, grab a prybar and let's see if we can pull up one of these stones and have a look inside."
Rogers was asking his students to take a massive shortcut that violated pretty much every protocol they had learned. But, like their mentor, they were caught up in the excitement of the moment. They felt like Carter opening the tomb of Tutankhamen, only this discovery had the potential to be far more significant.
After an hour of sweaty work under the brutal sun, the students had pried open a portal in the impossibly ancient dome. Rogers shone his penlight inside, four students peering over his shoulder.