Sherd

by Avi Solomon

Kneeling down into the dank, humid excavation zone under the temple-era dry dung pit deep beneath the supporting arches of the old city, I knew instantly upon brushing the gunk off, that these two sherds were different, being made out of carved marble rather than the standard fired clay. They were more like cylinders than pots, with curious knotchy holes at the base. The whole polished white surface was covered with a complex spiral pattern engraved in gold, tapering down in leisurely circles from the top to the bottom of the cylinder. The etching seemed too complicated to have been inscribed by a human hand, the design too irregular for identification in one of those expensive pottery manuals produced by the International Archaeological Society. A machined scratch seemed the only logical explanation. But I was too tired to process this thought right then. I finished snapping photos of the patterns and put the cylinders in a safe bag for the journey back to camp.

That night, as I lay sleeping on the jute cot in my field hut, I was woken up by a ping from my laptop. It had completed uploading and automatically tagging the photos of the day. As I crossed over to turn it off, an unusual word caught my eye on the screen. #Waveform it said.

Bolting up, I squinted at the screen and looked again at the sherds tucked away under my bed, glowing in the ambient moonlight. I was too tired to think straight, but I already knew that the daily team breakfast tomorrow with Dr. Milghazi would be quite an interesting affair…