Gene Wolfe
Soldier of Sidon
THE AETHIOPIANS WERE clothed in the skins of leopards and lions, and had long bows made of the stem of the palm-leaf, not less than four cubits in length. On these they laid short arrows made of reed, and armed at the tip, not with iron, but with a piece of stone, sharpened to a point, of the kind used in engraving seals. They carried likewise spears, the head of which was the sharpened horn of an antelope; and in addition they had knotted clubs. When they went into battle they painted their bodies, half with chalk and half with vermilion. – HERODOTUS
FOREWORD
SOME YEARS AGO I gave myself the fascinating task of translating two ancient texts in the possession of my friend D.A., scrolls of papyrus discovered in the basement of the British Museum. When I had completed my (admittedly tentative) translation of the second, I declared my work at an end.
A year ago, I received a letter from another friend, the Egyptologist I will call N.D. As is generally known, the ruins of the ancient nation of Nubia now lie almost entirely under the waters of the lake created by the Aswan Dams. Prior to the construction of the dams, strenuous efforts were made to salvage Nubia's archaeological treasures, particularly the famous temple of Isis on the Island of Philae. At that time, the science of underwater archaeology was in its infancy.
It is not so today. Underwater archaeologists, N.D. among them, are probing the depths of the lake and bringing to light many items of interest.
Among these was a sealed vase of post-Pharaonic times. Opened again after two and half millennia, it was found to contain a papyrus scroll written in the Egyptian style with a reed brush, but written not (as was first supposed) in hieratic characters but in archaic Latin. When the first sheets had been translated, N.D. kindly sent a copy of the entire scroll to me.