Now Elizabeth felt outright ashamed for her earlier judgement of Alice. What could she say? ‘I’m not sure how good I am, actually, but I’m very flattered that you chose to work on this project because of me. I hope I don’t disappoint you.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you won’t!’ Alice said, looking up shyly through her fringe.
Wow. Elizabeth had a fan. It was an uncomfortable feeling actually, not what she would have expected at all. Elizabeth smiled at Alice with what she hoped was reassurance.
‘So, how about I tell you which analyses I was planning to do myself,’ she said, ‘and we work out which tests you might do? Are you sure about using your master’s funding for this? It’s a small population, only seventeen. And some of the infants and children might be too small to conduct all the tests on.’
‘Yes, I’m sure. What tests are you doing?’
‘More observation and analysis than tests. A standard description, any pathologies, and these guys have some awesome artificial cranial deformation. I was thinking of doing a dental non-metric analysis, seeing where they sit in the broader Mesoamerican population.’
‘Artificial cranial deformation?’ Alice’s face lit up. ‘Carl didn’t mention that. I’d like to see it.’
Elizabeth opened the cupboard containing the small Olmec community and selected two boxes, one child with the squarer shaped head and one with an elongated cranium.
‘What incredible examples!’ Alice enthused. ‘Are there any tests you’d like me to do specifically on the deformation?’
‘Nothing I can think of…I’m more interested in the genetic testing. I need some time to work out what tests would be best.’
‘But Carl wanted us to tell him tonight.’
‘He also said he’ll be at a dinner tonight. How about this? I’ll email you some suggestions this afternoon, you work out which ones are inside your budget, then we’ll email that list to Carl.’
‘Yes! You are logical, just like Tanya said. Are you going to apply for the tutor jobs? I think you’d make a great tutor.’
‘I didn’t know there were tutoring jobs going?’
‘Yes, a few, and also a junior lecturer position. How about I send you a link to them tonight?’
Ooh, a tutoring position. Wouldn’t that be fantastic? She could work at the Library through the day, and tutor one or two nights a week. A real paid job in archaeology. She would feel better about running into her old lecturers then.
‘Yes, thanks. How about we exchange email addresses, and I make a start on my own work for the day?’
‘Okay. And…and, thank you. Again. For agreeing to let me work with you.’
Elizabeth was glad she hadn’t said anything mean to Alice when she first walked into the lab. That would have been disastrous. ‘More than okay.’
She smiled and waved as Alice backed out of the laboratory door.
All right, ffwrdd a ni! Let’s go!
Elizabeth had to do two things: write up her initial findings for Carl, and help Alice identify which tests to do. First, her description of the skeletons. She would include all the basics of age, sex, obvious pathologies and, of course, photos and notes on the artificial cranial deformation. And as she processed the information from the skeletons, she would compare it against the information she picked up from her literature review during the past week.
Last Saturday Carl had interrupted her before she could finish her assessment of the final adult skeleton. She would start there…but first, what had she found up to that point? Elizabeth closed her eyes and brought her observations from last Saturday to the front of her mind.
That’s right: two perinatal or neonatal infants, five juveniles around age five or six, four individuals around age eight or nine, and two around age fourteen. Their dentition matched those age points, too, according to articles Elizabeth had read during the week.
The children were split into two groups according to their artificial cranial deformation. The four children with squarer heads seemed to have enjoyed better, more consistent nutrition than the children with elongated heads, although…Elizabeth would ask Alice to take x-rays of their long bones, to see if there were any Harris lines to indicate differing nutritional patterns between the two groups. The start-stop pattern of growth in children who suffered periodic lack of food could leave telltale striations in their bones.
Elizabeth had also researched the question of child sacrifice among the Olmecs that week, but couldn’t find a definitive answer. One excavated Olmec sacrificial bog site held a number of newborns and neonates, but their cause of death was indeterminate.
Various forms of child sacrifice to water deities seemed well established among the Maya, Toltec and Aztec. From torture, flaying and the removal of hearts, to decapitation and ritual cannibalism, the ancient cultures of Mesoamerica had certainly explored many forms of sickening violence against children. Sadly, they weren’t alone. Humans, huh?
Elizabeth hadn’t seen any telltale marks of knives or scrapers on the bones of the Juluwik children, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. If their throats had been cut, or they had been stabbed, strangled, skinned or even eviscerated, there might be evidence not visible to the naked eye. She would ask if Alice had access to equipment to look for microscopic damage.
Now, the adults. Three of them had the same elongated heads as the majority of the children; the other was conical. The ballplayer had suffered some fairly extreme post-cranial injuries, presumably on the court. One of the women showed evidence of hours of regular corn grinding over most of her life, and all three women had pitting in their pelvic girdle that could result from pregnancy.
The last woman seemed to be both similar and different to the ballplayer…This was the point at which Carl had interrupted her. Elizabeth took a deep breath and pushed aside the galling memory. As her anxiety dissipated, her appetite began to reassert itself. She wished now that she had eaten breakfast.
Elizabeth retrieved the boxes containing the last adult and carefully laid her out on blue felt, gently turning the yellowed bones to catch the light. This woman’s skull was similar, almost identical, to the ballplayer’s, while her post-cranial remains appeared to be quite different. She had plenty of the pitting in her hands and knees associated with regular corn grinding, but none of the injuries of the ballplayer. There was also significant pitting within her pelvic girdle, more than the others, indicating multiple pregnancies.
Given the extremely high importance placed on twins in Mesoamerican mythologies, it had occurred to Elizabeth that she might be looking at some sets of twins among the group. If the ballplayer and this woman were sisters or twins, however, they had lived quite different lives. Alice’s DNA analysis would shed more light.
As Elizabeth finished measuring and photographing the woman’s long bones, admiring the incredible strength of the porous, spongy material that formed the human skeleton, the TARDIS sounded again.
Lunch in one hour. Lamb kebabs. Apricot and sunflower couscous. Turkish apple tea aplenty.
Elizabeth’s mouth watered. Grandmère certainly knew her favourites. She probably had enough material to write up her initial report to Carl now anyway. She packed up the remains, her computer and her satchel, switched off the lights and regretfully headed out to her car.
It would be another week before she could work with the fascinating women and children again. All of them had very good dentition, except for the two infants of course, so her plan of undertaking a dental non-metric analysis looked promising.
If she completed the analysis and found something worthwhile, she might convince Carl to publish a joint paper. Just imagine, Dr Elizabeth Pimms, primary author!
— —
After breakfast the following day, it was time for an Agatha Christie matinee with the family. Entering the lounge room, Elizabeth’s nostrils were assailed by the acrid scent of scorched fur. She shook her head resignedly and pulled a protesting Thoth from her place directly in front of the firebox. Th
e cat’s insistence on warming herself to the point of singeing was one of her few annoying habits.
Elizabeth settled next to the grumbling cat, who now lay a safe distance along the tiled bench, flicking her tail. Balancing on an elbow, supporting her head with one hand, Elizabeth patted Thoth soothingly with the other.
Grandmère Maddie pulled her knitting basket onto her lap and turned on the television. News bulletin theme music blared.
‘We’ve got five minutes, I’m going to grab an ice cream from the freezer. Anyone else want one?’ Matty asked.
‘Sure,’ said Sam, ‘How about I help you?’
‘No! I can do it myself!’ He whacked a floor pillow with one of his crutches on his way to the kitchen. For once, Elizabeth felt sorry for her sister. She had been about to offer to help Matty herself.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Taid murmured. ‘He just needs to do things for himself. It’s not personal.’
Sam nodded, her face tight. Their grandmothers looked suspiciously nonchalant, focused on the television.
‘The latest statistics from the United International Women’s Institute show alarming rates of forced marriages and kidnapping of women in India and China,’ the newsreader announced. ‘We explore what’s behind this disturbing trend.’
Female infanticide, I bet, thought Elizabeth.
‘Girls who have been kidnapped are then forced into marriages,’ the CEO of the Women’s Institute was reporting. ‘We believe this is a direct result of a shortage of women in these populations, caused by widespread termination of pregnancies of female foetuses, or abandonment of newborn females.’
It was a sickening practice, killing girls simply because they weren’t boys. Actually, could the younger children at Juluwik have been victims of infanticide, and if so, would there be any traces of how they died?
‘We estimate that up to 200 million females are missing from the global population right now,’ the news report continued. ‘This is linked to the undervaluing of females in a number of cultures, where sons are seen as more desirable, both socially and economically. As a result, whole generations of men are now reaching marriageable age, and there aren’t enough girls to go around. We then see this trend of kidnapping girls and forcing them into marriage. It’s the most common form of human trafficking and slavery in many of these countries.’
The continuation of a millennia-old practice. From throwing baby girls into the Ganges in India, to drowning female newborns in a bucket of cold water in China, female infanticide was practised across the ancient world. Elizabeth would have to search for literature on infanticide in Mesoamerica, and see what gender the children were when the results of Alice’s DNA came in, to see if it was a possible explanation for their deaths.
Matty returned to the lounge room and dropped Sam’s ice cream in her lap. ‘Why are all those girls missing, Grandmère? What does she mean, human trafficking?’
‘Mathieu, mon chou, this is a difficult subject.’ Grandmère’s eyes flicked to Nainai Cho, who sat absolutely still in her chair.
As Grandmère Maddie explained things to Matty, Nainai made a little noise. Elizabeth wasn’t sure what it meant. She could only see Nainai Cho’s profile. She looked searchingly at Taid, who shook his head.
The news bulletin ended.
‘Ah, the movie begins,’ Grandmère Maddie said. ‘Mathieu, you must always remember that boys and girls are equally valuable. Freedom and equality for all. Girls have the same rights as the boys, and both are to be adored.’
Elizabeth was reminded why she loved her French Berber grandmother so much. Grandmère really did value everyone equally.
Halfway through the movie Nainai excused herself, saying she had a headache. Elizabeth moved to follow her but Taid gestured at his granddaughter to stay in her seat. He exchanged a glance with Grandmère, then followed Nainai from the room himself. Elizabeth was confident that Taid would help Nainai. Had the news item on children being killed reminded her of the loss of her own son?
Taid returned just before the end of the movie and settled back down next to Grandmère. As soon as the movie ended, and Sam and Matty had left the lounge room, Elizabeth asked after her grandmother.
‘Is Nainai okay, Taid?’
‘It’s complicated, Beth bach. For now, she is resting and should feel more herself tomorrow. It’s best if we don’t mention it, okay?’
Elizabeth nodded. She didn’t know what was wrong with Nainai, but for once, she accepted she shouldn’t try to find out. If Nainai needed space, she could respect that.
‘Now,’ Taid continued, ‘we didn’t press you for details yesterday, but please tell us what happened with Carl.’
Elizabeth grinned. ‘It was strange…He was actually nice to me. He’s organised for a master’s student to join the team and to use her funding to undertake some expensive genetic testing.’
‘So, you’re happy to continue working with him?’ Grandmère asked.
‘Based on his behaviour yesterday, yes. I had to correct something he said, and he was okay with that, though I won’t trust him in future.’ Elizabeth paused. ‘There was something else.’
‘What’s that, cariad?’
‘The department has advertised some tutoring positions. I’d like to apply. It would mean working one or two evenings a week. What do you think?’
‘Would you continue to volunteer on Saturdays? I think that would be too much,’ Taid said.
‘I wouldn’t do both. My work on the Olmec remains should finish in a month or two, well before the tutoring starts.’
‘In that case, yes,’ Taid said. Grandmère nodded her agreement. ‘I think it would be marvellous if you became a tutor. As long as it’s just once or twice a week, mind. More than that and you’d risk becoming run-down.’
‘Agreed, just once or twice a week.’ Yes! She was going to apply for the tutorship and be published this year. Yay!
Climbing the stairs to her bedroom, Elizabeth began planning. Applications for tutoring weren’t due for another two weeks, so she’d finish her initial report to Carl then tackle her job application. She couldn’t wait to tell Luke and Tanya when she Skyped with them both that afternoon about the tutoring roles…in fact, about everything that had happened in the last two weeks.
Later that day, Elizabeth connected with Tanya in Ulaanbaatar first. Tanya, supportive to the end, was excited to hear about Elizabeth’s work on the Juluwik remains. ‘You’ve always been the bonesy person.’ Elizabeth missed her freckled, spiky-haired friend so much.
Tanya hadn’t known about the tutoring jobs, but she wouldn’t have applied for them anyway. She intended to stay in Mongolia for a few more years.
Luke, on the other hand, was definitely applying. ‘For the tutoring roles and the junior lectureship,’ he said when they Skyped.
Elizabeth’s heart leapt. ‘Luke! That’s such great news! I really hope you get something. Just imagine, when you come home at Christmas time, maybe you can stay for good.’
‘Never know your luck, Lizzie-bear.’ Luke gave her one of his heart-melting smiles. ‘You’ll have to help me, though. I’ll need you to look some things up for me, since I can’t access anything online when I’m in the field. If you can email responses to some questions I have, I’ll be able to finalise my job applications when I come back to town in a fortnight, okay?’
‘Yes!’
‘I’ll send you a list of questions tonight, before we head back out, yes?’
‘Of course!’
Elizabeth lay awake for hours that night. In just a few short months, not only would she be published, but she might also have a proper paid job in archaeology and her boyfriend back. Joy!
— —
Crawling forward in her car at one set of traffic lights after another the following morning, Elizabeth caught herself visualising the tools and methods she would have used in ancient Egypt to restore a half-buried cenotaph. At that moment she knew she was starting to enjoy life again, as opposed to just ge
tting through it.
As a teenager, Elizabeth had spent hours constructing a perfect alternative incarnation – her ‘other life’. Her fanciful musings disappeared the day her father died, but now, with the possibility of a new job in archaeology and having Luke back, they were returning.
In her imaginary world she was born in Egypt at the time of Ramesses the Second. She was the daughter of a scribe, living with her family in Set Ma’at, the artisan village of the Valley of the Kings. After years of study, service and worshipping Ma’at, she won a position as a high-ranking scribe to Ramesses’ son Khaenweset: the very first known Egyptologist. Side by side with Khaenweset she excavated the ancient pyramids and monuments of the Old Kingdom. Upon her death she was buried in her very own beautifully decorated tomb.
As the traffic lights cycled through green, yellow and red, Elizabeth remembered her dreams from the previous night: her nocturnal visions of Egypt’s gods had also returned. In the septachromatic scheme of Egyptian tombs – pale and vivid yellows, blackest black, starkest white, and purest red, green and blue – scenes from The Book of Coming Forth into the Light, the Book of the Dead, unfolded before her mind’s eye.
Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the afterlife and mummification, placed Elizabeth’s heart on the scales of Ma’at. Elizabeth held her breath. Ibis-headed Thoth recorded it as equal in weight to Ma’at’s feather of truth – she passed! With relief, Elizabeth was guided by Anubis past the soul-devouring crocodile-headed Ammit to the doorway of Duat, the place of life after life. Here she would dwell with Osiris and her family forever.
It was a year and a half since she her return from Egypt, and only now was balance returning to Elizabeth’s internal world. It felt very, very good.
— —
The following week flashed by as Elizabeth worked on the service desk by day and prepared her report for Carl at nights. She also responded to Luke’s queries, emailing him a volume of information for his job applications. By the time Friday afternoon coffee with Nathan rolled around, however, Elizabeth’s frustration had begun to build – she wanted it to be Saturday morning so she could get back to the lab.
Olmec Obituary Page 10