Archaeology, Or Something Like It
Title: Archaeology, Or Something Like It
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Notes: Written for Saturday Scribes.
Theme: Serendipity
Prompts: candle, speaker, emblem
Bonus Prompts: Byzantine, Zeppelin
The first find of the day wasn't really any more remarkable than anything that they'd found so far. The candle holder was possibly late 19th century, a battered, misshapen lump that should never have been found this far down. Katie marked it on the grid as yet another item left behind the last time this site had been explored, silently cursing the criminal disrespect of her professional predecessors.
She was considering taking a break to grab a coffee when something about the ground at her feet caught her attention. Setting aside the candle holder, she began to scrape carefully at the layer of earth, heart leaping as the trowel made an unmistakable scraping sound a moment later. The earth was concealing a stone surface!
"Russell! Come look at this!"
Her colleague appeared at the edge of the trench.
"You got something K?"
He sounded doubtful. She couldn't really blame him for that. Despite the geological scans confirming the ancient texts indicating this site had held a long lost civilization, in the three weeks that they'd been there they'd only found the remains of the previously unsuccessful dig.
She kept scraping away at the surface as he climbed down into the trench to join her, slowly revealing the distinctive outline of a large stone slab. It seemed to be marked in the centre by a symbol that she didn't recognise.
"What is that?" Russell asked.
"I don't know. I've not seen anything like it on a floor stone before. Give me a hand will you?"
They worked in silence for a few minutes, gradually pealing back the years of earth to reveal the edges of adjoining stones, and the worn image on the slightly protruding central slab.
"Still playing in the dirt I see," a sarcastic voice reached her ears.
Engrossed as she was, it took her a moment to realise the identity of the speaker. Matthew Bryce. The most annoying man on the planet. He always spoke to her with a holier-than-thou tone that made her want to smack the little twit. Russell gave her a sympathetic wince and made good his escape, mumbling something about making a cup of coffee. She scowled at his retreating back, and silently promised him some payback later.
"Come up with anything interesting yet Miss Harrison?"
He'd given up on calling her Katie after she'd repeatedly declined his invitation to call him Matthew.
"Why don't you come down and have a look Bryce?" she asked him sarcastically, knowing exactly what his answer would be.
Bryce looked at the dirt in the trench, and then his immaculate shoes and expensive suit with a grimace.
"I don't think that will be necessary," he replied, his tone caustic. "Your backers require an update on your progress. How many items of interest can I tell them you've found so far?" He had his clipboard and expensive pen at the ready like he was conducting a survey in the town centre.
"The topography shows the stuff is here," she stalled, not willing to admit she'd found something she couldn't identify. "Archaeology takes time, and patience, and a lot of hard work."
"And money," smirked her nemesis. He made a show of putting his pen back into his jacket pocket. "I'm afraid my clients are going to need a better answer than that if you expect them to keep funding this little project."
"If you pull any more of my funding, there won't even be a project." The ire was beginning to seep into her tone. They'd already had to lay off some of the help because of financial strings being cut.
He gave her a shrug and a condescending smile. Katie couldn't keep the bile from rising in her throat.
"Where's your sense of adventure?" she snapped, annoyed that she'd let him get to her once again.
"You're no Indiana Jones you know," Bryce replied with a sneer, like he'd been waiting for just that sort of opening to use the line.
Katie gave him the universal hand signal for 'get the hell off my dig', and maxed out the volume on her MP3, before giving her full attention to a strange emblem on the stone beneath her feet. Bryce continued talking, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was now being drowned out by Led Zeppelin.
She never heard his warning shout.
The ground around her seemed to open up and swallow her, the stonework crumbling at its edges and giving way beneath her, and she made a desperate attempt to scrabble onto the edges of the rapidly distancing hole, kicking out her arms and legs as she fell, before hitting the ground a few seconds later.
Stunned and winded, the first thing Katie slowly noticed was the disconcerting lack of sound. She was lying in a shaft of sunlight, dust and small amounts of debris slowly falling round her. Satisfied that none of her bones were broken, she rolled carefully onto her side. And stopped in shock. The ground didn't seem to extend very far around her. Her hands felt the edges of cold stone close to where she had landed. Carefully, she extended her reach - into open space.
Fumbling fingers managed to find the small, impact resistant torch hanging from her hip, and after a couple of goes she managed to get it turned on, noticing the smashed and useless music player beside her with a mixture of annoyance and relief. At least that explained the sudden lack of sound. The light illuminated a ground level some distance below, but wasn't quite strong enough for her to make out any details. In contrast, the edges of the rough slab of stone she was lying on were starkly illuminated, and a little too close for comfort.
Another foot to the left...
Katie shuddered away the thought, rolling onto her back once again and playing the beam along the smoothly sloped ceiling. It was quite a reasonably sized space, but not too large for her small flash light to fail to illuminate the decoration. A sweeping and intricately mosaicked dome. It took her muddled brain a few moments to work out what it all meant.
"Byzantine."
Her own whispered voice took her by surprise. Not a lost civilization, but a buried one!
Bryce's concerned face peered over the edge of the hole, his crisp business suit now rumpled, and marked with a smear of dirt towards the right collar. He was quickly joined by Russell, carefully examining the edges of the hole for any sign that more might break away.
"Are you all right K?"
They probably hadn't expected to find her laughing.
"Hey Bryce," she shouted up to him, a big smile of triumph erupting on her face, even as she coughed at the falling dust. "Tell your boys to get their chequebooks out!"
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Notes: Written for Saturday Scribes.
Theme: Serendipity
Prompts: candle, speaker, emblem
Bonus Prompts: Byzantine, Zeppelin
The first find of the day wasn't really any more remarkable than anything that they'd found so far. The candle holder was possibly late 19th century, a battered, misshapen lump that should never have been found this far down. Katie marked it on the grid as yet another item left behind the last time this site had been explored, silently cursing the criminal disrespect of her professional predecessors.
She was considering taking a break to grab a coffee when something about the ground at her feet caught her attention. Setting aside the candle holder, she began to scrape carefully at the layer of earth, heart leaping as the trowel made an unmistakable scraping sound a moment later. The earth was concealing a stone surface!
"Russell! Come look at this!"
Her colleague appeared at the edge of the trench.
"You got something K?"
He sounded doubtful. She couldn't really blame him for that. Despite the geological scans confirming the ancient texts indicating this site had held a long lost civilization, in the three weeks that they'd been there they'd only found the remains of the previously unsuccessful dig.
She kept scraping away at the surface as he climbed down into the trench to join her, slowly revealing the distinctive outline of a large stone slab. It seemed to be marked in the centre by a symbol that she didn't recognise.
"What is that?" Russell asked.
"I don't know. I've not seen anything like it on a floor stone before. Give me a hand will you?"
They worked in silence for a few minutes, gradually pealing back the years of earth to reveal the edges of adjoining stones, and the worn image on the slightly protruding central slab.
"Still playing in the dirt I see," a sarcastic voice reached her ears.
Engrossed as she was, it took her a moment to realise the identity of the speaker. Matthew Bryce. The most annoying man on the planet. He always spoke to her with a holier-than-thou tone that made her want to smack the little twit. Russell gave her a sympathetic wince and made good his escape, mumbling something about making a cup of coffee. She scowled at his retreating back, and silently promised him some payback later.
"Come up with anything interesting yet Miss Harrison?"
He'd given up on calling her Katie after she'd repeatedly declined his invitation to call him Matthew.
"Why don't you come down and have a look Bryce?" she asked him sarcastically, knowing exactly what his answer would be.
Bryce looked at the dirt in the trench, and then his immaculate shoes and expensive suit with a grimace.
"I don't think that will be necessary," he replied, his tone caustic. "Your backers require an update on your progress. How many items of interest can I tell them you've found so far?" He had his clipboard and expensive pen at the ready like he was conducting a survey in the town centre.
"The topography shows the stuff is here," she stalled, not willing to admit she'd found something she couldn't identify. "Archaeology takes time, and patience, and a lot of hard work."
"And money," smirked her nemesis. He made a show of putting his pen back into his jacket pocket. "I'm afraid my clients are going to need a better answer than that if you expect them to keep funding this little project."
"If you pull any more of my funding, there won't even be a project." The ire was beginning to seep into her tone. They'd already had to lay off some of the help because of financial strings being cut.
He gave her a shrug and a condescending smile. Katie couldn't keep the bile from rising in her throat.
"Where's your sense of adventure?" she snapped, annoyed that she'd let him get to her once again.
"You're no Indiana Jones you know," Bryce replied with a sneer, like he'd been waiting for just that sort of opening to use the line.
Katie gave him the universal hand signal for 'get the hell off my dig', and maxed out the volume on her MP3, before giving her full attention to a strange emblem on the stone beneath her feet. Bryce continued talking, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was now being drowned out by Led Zeppelin.
She never heard his warning shout.
The ground around her seemed to open up and swallow her, the stonework crumbling at its edges and giving way beneath her, and she made a desperate attempt to scrabble onto the edges of the rapidly distancing hole, kicking out her arms and legs as she fell, before hitting the ground a few seconds later.
Stunned and winded, the first thing Katie slowly noticed was the disconcerting lack of sound. She was lying in a shaft of sunlight, dust and small amounts of debris slowly falling round her. Satisfied that none of her bones were broken, she rolled carefully onto her side. And stopped in shock. The ground didn't seem to extend very far around her. Her hands felt the edges of cold stone close to where she had landed. Carefully, she extended her reach - into open space.
Fumbling fingers managed to find the small, impact resistant torch hanging from her hip, and after a couple of goes she managed to get it turned on, noticing the smashed and useless music player beside her with a mixture of annoyance and relief. At least that explained the sudden lack of sound. The light illuminated a ground level some distance below, but wasn't quite strong enough for her to make out any details. In contrast, the edges of the rough slab of stone she was lying on were starkly illuminated, and a little too close for comfort.
Another foot to the left...
Katie shuddered away the thought, rolling onto her back once again and playing the beam along the smoothly sloped ceiling. It was quite a reasonably sized space, but not too large for her small flash light to fail to illuminate the decoration. A sweeping and intricately mosaicked dome. It took her muddled brain a few moments to work out what it all meant.
"Byzantine."
Her own whispered voice took her by surprise. Not a lost civilization, but a buried one!
Bryce's concerned face peered over the edge of the hole, his crisp business suit now rumpled, and marked with a smear of dirt towards the right collar. He was quickly joined by Russell, carefully examining the edges of the hole for any sign that more might break away.
"Are you all right K?"
They probably hadn't expected to find her laughing.
"Hey Bryce," she shouted up to him, a big smile of triumph erupting on her face, even as she coughed at the falling dust. "Tell your boys to get their chequebooks out!"