Dr. Mark Rogers was on the old side of middle aged, and he had grown to accept stiffness and arthritis in his joints as a way of life. But there was no way he was going to step aside and let one of his grad students be the first to lay eyes on the most significant archaeological discovery in the past century. His quick flashlight survey had revealed exquisite carvings of mythological beasts–dragons, harpies, mermaids, and centaurs, among others–conveyed in a realistic style that made Rogers think of the finest Greco-Roman, even neo-classical, sculpture. But there was no way those civilizations could have carved these works. This dome predated the earliest Greeks by centuries, and it had clearly been sealed up before the next occupants came to worship at the site.
Holding a lantern in one hand, Rogers allowed his students to lower him into the black abyss. The dome was about twenty meters across, but it covered a shaft that was almost fifty feet deep. The electric lamp Rogers carried was barely bright enough to illuminate the entire space.
The floor was a mosaic of glittering tiles, representing a map of the surrounding region for about a hundred miles around. Perfectly preserved frescoes covered ever square inch of wall space, showing humans in loin cloths presenting offerings to mythological beings, and bowing before a beautiful woman with vast black wings who was seated on a throne. Unlike the art of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, with their stylized figures, this art was almost photorealistic in it's presentation. Rogers could almost swear he saw the figures move when he wasn't looking directly at it.
But what caught Rogers' eye the most was a pedestal in the center of the room. Stop it was a figurine of solid gold, no more than a few inches tall. It depicted the winged woman on the frescoes, she was dancing, balanced on one foot, and on closer inspection, Rogers could see that she had small horns atop her head and a whip-like tail curled behind her. Her figure was lithe and toned, but her breasts and hips were grossly exaggerated, foreshadowing later Indian art. Her eyes, crafted from two small glittering rubies, seemed to gaze directly at him.
"Are you all right, Professor?" Melissa called from above. "What do you see?"
"Wonderful things," Rogers replied hoarsely, inadvertently quoting Carter. He squirmed uncomfortably under the gaze of the seven thousand year old figure, feeling lust for the tiny inanimate object.
An unprofessional impulse seized Rogers, and he snatched the figure up and then stuffed her in an inside pocket in his jacket. He told himself that he would do a full analytical writeup on the figurine that night, but in truth he wasted to spend as much time alone with the statuette as possible.