In the broken funeral urn, there was a linen package soaked in pine resin.
Because it was so old, it had oxidized and turned black, and looked like a pile of carbonized matter. Over
thousands of years, the pine resin had long since dried and solidified, protecting the linen package inside like a hard shell, and preserving the internal organs wrapped in it.
However, although this layer of solidified pine resin has protected the internal organs for three thousand years, it has now been peeled off.
Chen Mo spread a piece of white cloth on the table, and then used tweezers and a small hammer to carefully peel off the layers of linen, revealing the internal organs that had long been dried up like air-dried bacon.
Although it may have been air-dried before it was wrapped in linen and made into a funeral urn, in the eyes of Chen Mo, a necromancer who is familiar with human organs, it is still easy to recognize that this is a heart.
"Heart...dedicate the soul to Sekhmet? Or let Sekhmet guard the soul of the dead..." The Egyptian scholar on the side looked at the heart that was finally peeled out by Chen Mo, and his face could no longer suppress the expression of fear.
In the concept of the ancient Egyptians, the heart is a very important existence and a symbol of a person's soul. In
mythology, when the ancient Egyptians entered the underworld after death, they would put their hearts on the scales in front of the god of the underworld Osiris to weigh them. If a person had done many evil things in his life, then the heart symbolizing his soul would fall heavily, causing the feathers on the other side of the scale to rise, and this heart symbolizing the soul would be eaten by the crocodile-headed devourer Amut.
If the deceased had done good deeds during his lifetime, his heart would rise high and ascend to the paradise of Yalu after death to obtain the right to eternal life.
This shows how important the heart is in the culture of ancient Egypt. In
particular, the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul of the dead only left the body temporarily, and one day they would return to their bodies to be reborn, and the heart, as the host of the soul, must never leave the body.
But what was in front of them was a heart that had been taken out of the body and placed in a funeral urn guarded by Sekhmet, the god of war. This was really strange.
At this time, Evelyn looked at Chen Mo and the Egyptologist, who were thinking hard about the four complete funeral urns and the heart that looked like a dried peach pit that Chen Mo had opened on the table. She picked up the funeral urn on the table with some curiosity, wanting to take a look at what was written on it, perhaps to find some clues.
"What's written on it?" Chen Mo noticed Evelyn's movements and looked up at her.
Because he didn't know the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, he could only hope that Evelyn, who could read the ancient Egyptian characters, would be able to help.
However, the Egyptologist on the side shook his head first: "It's just an ordinary prayer text, praying that the gods will protect the soul of the dead."
Obviously, he had checked the inscriptions on the funeral urn before, but did not get any clues.
Although he had previously overlooked the fact that these jars were funeral urns because he had found the legendary Black Book of the Dead, a priceless treasure, he still managed to identify the inscriptions on the jars. However,
after hearing Evelyn's words, Chen Mo had some inspiration. He picked up the broken funeral urn and handed it to the Egyptologist in front of him, asking him, "What is written on it?"
"Great Sekhmet, I offer my heart to you, may you drink blood and protect your soul." The Egyptologist pieced the broken funeral urn together and read out the inscription he had identified.
There was nothing wrong with this inscription. As a god symbolizing war in ancient Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet's biggest hobby was to drink human blood. Writing this in the prayer just represented respect and dedication to her.
Chen Mo listened to this inscription and did not find any clues, but the sense of crisis in his heart made him feel that there must be a problem hidden in this inscription that he had not discovered.
But no matter how Chen Mo checked it over and over again, he still had no clue.
Evelyn, who was standing by, also curiously tried to decipher these words, but also found nothing.
The only thing that could be called a gain was that after opening several other jars, they found through comparison that these five jars were not made in the same batch.
"Look here, pay attention to the inscriptions inside!" Evelyn showed her discovery to Chen Mo and the Egyptologist. Because of the light problem, she struck a match and used the fire to illuminate the inner wall of the jar, on which was engraved a line of tiny Egyptian characters: "This is a hieratic font, a font that only priests in ancient Egypt could write. Unlike the common hieroglyphics, it is more used for shorthand and writing. There are two words written on it, which means 'Sekhemet's warrior' and a name. I can only spell out the approximate pronunciation and can't translate its meaning."
"Sekhemet's warrior? This is not surprising. As the god of war, most of the people who believed in her in that era were warriors or powerful people. It is not surprising to claim to be her warrior." The Egyptologist standing by did not seem to find it strange.
However, Evelyn had a different opinion. Just when the match in her hand went out and she was about to strike another match, Chen Mo took out a small LED penlight and illuminated the jar in her hand.
"Wow, what is this? It looks like a flashlight." Several people noticed what Chen Mo was holding and couldn't help but make surprised sounds, but they didn't think it was that strange. In
1925, Edison had invented a commercial light bulb, and dry batteries were invented in 1887. This kind of mobile lighting device had already appeared in the late 19th century, but it was not so small and delicate.
"It's a flashlight, but it's a little better than the general one." Chen Mo was too lazy to explain. He just picked up the jar and shone the penlight in his hand into the jar, hoping to find more discoveries.
Just as he was turning the jar in his hand, Evelyn suddenly stopped him and asked him to hold it still while carefully identifying the shadow of the text on the jar due to the light transmission.
"What is this..." The Egyptian scholar beside him also noticed the shadow of the text on the jar due to the light transmission, and adjusted the monocle on his face to see more clearly: "This is the text inside the jar, but why did it become like this? This means..."
"The warrior chosen by God." Evelyn recognized the meaning of the shadow of the text originally engraved on the inside of the jar after it was reversed due to the light transmission: "It means that the owners of these ritual urns are the warriors chosen by Sekhmet."
(End of this chapter)