The Sacred Bones (11 page)

Charlotte peered down. "Okay. Let's figure out how this man died."

"Strictly speaking, we don't know we're dealing with a male yet, Dr. Hennesey," he politely challenged. "Could be female."

Charlotte tilted her head. "Sure. But I doubt a woman would've been given such a fancy box."

Raising his eyebrows, he couldn't tell if she was joking.

"Don't panic. I'm not about to get feminist on you," she said. "I'm saving that for later."

"Just be gentle."

Both scientists agreed that their initial analysis would be a forensic pathology study determining the cause of death if possible, followed by a reconstruction of the skeleton's physical profile. Charlotte activated the workstation's recording system to document the analysis. Later, their oral notes would be transcribed. From the workstation drawer, she pulled out two pairs of Orascoptic goggles. Giving one to Bersei and putting the other on, she flipped the telescoping lenses over her eyes.

They began with the skull, both bending closer to study it in minute detail.

"Looks perfect," Bersei said peering through his goggles.

Charlotte sized up the dimensions and contours. "Square chin, pronounced supraorbital ridges and muscle attachment points. It does look like we're dealing with a male."

"Maybe you're right," Bersei admitted. He tilted the skull back and rotated it, examining the inner cavity. "The sutures are still visible, but have all fused. See here," he pointed to the seam where the contoured bone plates met along the skull, looking like a jagged zipper that had been smoothed over.

Verifying his observation, Charlie knew the concept. The younger the specimen, the more pronounced the joining lines would appear, looking like the tight joining of two saw blades. The older the specimen, the fusion would advance to the point where the lines would become indiscernible. "That means we're looking at age twenty to thirty, minimum?"

"I'd agree with that." Bersei turned the skull over a few times, scanning its surfaces. "I'm not seeing any indications of head trauma, are you?"

"None."

Both scientists turned their attention to the mandible.

"These teeth are in magnificent shape," Charlotte said. "Hope mine hold up this well. This guy still had a full set. Don't even see an indication of periodontal disease." For a second, she fussed with a rotating dial on the goggles to increase the magnification of the lenses. "The enamel's intact. No cavities or uneven wearing."

"Strange."

"Maybe he didn't like sweets."

They moved to the cervical region, analyzing intently, searching for abnormalities in the neck.

"I'm not seeing any spurs," Charlotte remarked. "No ridging or ossification here."

"And no fusion either," Bersei added. "Actually, the discs don't appear to have degenerated at all." He delicately rotated the last small section of cervical vertebrae. "Nothing shocking." He motioned toward the skeleton's rib cage. "Let's keep moving."

Almost immediately Charlotte's eyebrows shot up. "Wait. That's interesting."

Following her finger to the center of the chest area, Bersei focused on the flat bones of the sternum and spotted it immediately. "That's a huge tear."

"Sure is." She studied the separations in the dried cartilage attaching the ribs to the chest plate. "Do you think that might have happened when the rib cage was detached to fit into the ossuary?"

"Perhaps." His tone was cautious. Bersei shifted his focus to the adjacent shoulder. "Look here."

She followed his lead. "You've got a good eye. The humerus and clavicle were separated from the scapula?"

"Agreed. But it doesn't look like it happened postmortem. The tears are fibrous. Where the tissue separated suggests the breakage happened before the tissue dried." He shifted back to the sternum. "See here. Looks like the same story. Can you detect where the cartilage stretched, pulled widthwise and tore? When the bones were prepared for burial, some kind of blade was used to cut the tissue."

Hennesey saw it too. A clean cut bisected the lateral stress tears of torn cartilage. "Ouch, that looks painful. What do you think...a dislocation?"

"A very violent dislocation." Bersei's tone was troubled.

"That had to really hurt."

"I'm sure it did. But it certainly didn't kill him. You take those ribs." He indicated the ones closest to her. "And I'll take these."

Time seemed suspended as they worked on the ribs, meticulously analyzing each surface.

Charlotte was just starting to ease into the idea of working on bones, focusing on the task at hand rather than unpleasant images of the genetic chaos inside her own body at that very moment. "You seeing what I'm seeing?"

"The deep grooves?" Bersei's head was down. "Absolutely."

Some of the ribs were unscathed, but most looked like they'd been raked with thick nails to produce long, scalloped gouges. The ratty fissures appeared in random groupings.

"What could've done this?" Her voice had sunk to a whisper.

"I think I may know. Do you see traces of metal deposit?"

"Yes. Is this something that happened postmortem? It almost looks like some kind of animal was chewing on them."

"I'd have to say no," Bersei told her. "You'll notice those marks only appear on the anterior fascia. Teeth would've left marks on both sides, not to mention that most scavengers would have run off with the bone before gnawing on it and wouldn't have left us a complete skeleton."

"So what do you think did this?" Charlotte straightened.

"Let me put it this way." He peered over the flip-down telescoping lenses. "If the bones look this bad, the muscle and skin that covered them must have looked far worse.... Probably shredded." Holding her gaze, he drew a breath then said, "Looks to me like this man was flayed."

"You mean whipped?"

He nodded slowly. "That's right. Those markings are from a barbed whip."

"Poor guy." The thought of such violence hit her in the gut.

"Let's keep going." Bersei bent down and began working on the upper segments of lumbar vertebrae.

Charlotte leaned over and started rotating the lower vertebrae of the spine while scrutinizing every bone and cushion of disc material. "Everything looks good here."

"Agreed." Bersei glanced at the compact structure of the pelvic bones that provided definitive clues relating to gender. "And you were right about the gender. Definitely male." He ran his fingers along the contours of bone where the genitalia would be. "The sciatic notch is narrow, the preauricular area's got no indentations and flattens."

"No babies coming out through there. No infants left motherless, at least."

So far Giovanni Bersei was pleased. Determining gender from skeletal remains was never easy as the most obvious gender-specific traits occurred in the soft tissues, not the bones. Depending on a variety of factors, from diet and lifestyle, to the physical stress of the subject's occupation, the female human skeleton could easily morph its soft tissue in ways that conditioned the skeletal frame to appear almost identical to its male counterpart. Increased muscle mass would be an obvious equalizer, demanding thicker bones to support them, especially in areas where ligaments would attach. But the pelvis's birthing canal was fairly discernable in most female skeletons.

"So-- arms or legs?" he inquired.

"Arms first."

They shifted along the skeleton, resuming a minute analysis of the long bones, starting with the humerus and working down to the paired set of each arm's lower half-- the ulna and radius.

Something caught her eye and she moved even closer to sharpen the lenses' resolution. There was significant damage to the inner surfaces of the bones joining above the wrist. "What's this? Looks like they went through a grinder."

"It's on this side too. The damage is contained to just above the wrist," Bersei confirmed. "Do you see oxidation, like long streaks?"

"Yeah, could be metallic residue. Maybe hematite." She saw something else. "Hang on." She repositioned the lens. "Fibers have been lodged in the bone. Your side?"

"Yes. Get a sample of that. Looks like wood."

Charlotte went into the tool drawer, removed a pair of tweezers and a small plastic vial, and proceeded to pluck away the fibers from the bone.

Meanwhile, Bersei was already moving down near the skeleton's feet. He bent over to get a better look at something there.

"What do you see?" she asked, standing and setting down the vial and tweezers.

He waved her closer. "Come take a look."

Training her lenses on the area just below the shin, the paired set of fibula and tibia looked healthy. But nestled in the upper notches of each foot were deep, gritty patches scooped into the bones. Two bones in the left foot had been fractured.

"Look at the damage between the second and third metatarsals," Bersei noted. "It's similar to the arms."

"Same rust-colored streaking," Hennesey added. "Definitely came from some kind of impaled metal."

"Judging from the fractures in the second metatarsal on the left foot, it was a nail. Do you see where the point hit the bone and split it?"

Hennesey saw a diamond-shaped indentation stamped in the fissure's midpoint and detected more wood splinters. "Unbelievable. Looks like the nail missed the first time." Thinking that one human could inflict this kind of damage on another nauseated her. What kind of animal could be capable of such cruelty?

"Most likely because the feet were nailed on top of one another," Dr. Bersei stated flatly. He noticed another oddity in the area of the knees and positioned himself for a better view.

"What do you see?"

"Look at this."

When Charlotte focused on the knee joint, the damage was immediately apparent. Just when she thought it couldn't get worse. "Oh, God."

"Completely blown out," Bersei gasped. "Look at those tears in the cartilage and the hairline fractures below the knee."

"His knees were broken?"

"Yes, of course."

"What do you mean?"

Bersei straightened and flipped his lenses up. His complexion was ashen. "It's quite clear what happened here. This man was crucified."

T
EMPLE
M
OUNT

"Surely you don't expect me to desecrate the remains of the dead." Utterly insulted, Razak folded his arms across his chest and frowned at Barton. "Have you no conscience?"

"It's important, Razak." He held out the gloves again.

Razak pushed the gloves away. "I will not permit this!" His voice reverberated loudly off the chamber's walls. "You'll have to get authorization from the Waqf."

Akbar peered through the blast hole, looking alarmed.

Avoiding the guard's glare, Barton spoke quietly. "You and I both know that will yield no results. In the interest of time, we'll need to take some initiative to find answers. That's why we're here."

Still fuming, Razak turned to Akbar. "Everything's fine." He motioned for the guard to go away. He rubbed his temples, then turned back to the archaeologist. "What good can come of this? They are only bones in those boxes."

"That's not certain."

Razak spread his hands. "If that isn't the case, then why didn't the thieves take these boxes too?" He motioned toward the ossuaries.

"We need to be sure," Barton remained steadfast. "Every possibility must be explored. As it stands, the only clues we have are in this room. It would be a major oversight to forgo studying these ossuaries."

For a few seconds, the crypt was deathly silent.

"All right," Razak finally yielded. "One box at a time. But this you will do alone."

"Understood."

"Allah save us," Razak muttered. "Go on, then. Do what you must." He turned to face away from the scene.

Relieved, Barton knelt in front of the first ossuary, inscribed with the Hebrew characters that translated to "Rebecca." "This may take awhile," he called out.

"I will wait."

Reaching out with both hands, Barton firmly clasped the sides of the flat stone lid. He glanced over at Razak. The Muslim still had his back to him. Drawing a deep breath, Barton jostled it loose, pulling it away.

Two hours after he opened the first ossuary, Graham Barton was just replacing the skeletal remains that he had taken out of the seventh ossuary. Much like the specimens he had found in the preceding six burial boxes, this one was remarkably well preserved.

Though forensic anthropology wasn't his specialty, he had studied enough bones in his time to understand the fundamentals. Certainly, the names on each ossuary eliminated much of the speculation concerning gender, but clues present on the skull sutures, joints, and pelvic bones led him to certain conclusions regarding the age of these skeletons. The four younger females-- the daughters, he guessed-- deceased very young, ranging in age between late teens and early twenties. The three younger males-- by the same logic, the sons-- also seemed to fall into the same range. Typical of families during the first century, the children were numerous and born in rapid succession to ensure family survival.

Yet as far as Barton could tell, their remains showed no outright anomalies. No telling signs of trauma.

Assuming these siblings were all born of the father and mother interred in ossuaries eight and nine, it seemed uncanny that all could have died so young. Even in the first century, where normal life expectancy of those surviving their grueling early years might have been as low as thirty-five, this seemed statistically improbable. In fact, it appeared as if they'd all died at the same time.

Strange.

Barton stood to stretch for moment. "Still doing okay over there?" He glanced across the chamber where the Muslim was seated in a meditative position, facing the wall. At one point, he had heard him chanting prayers.

"Yes. How much longer will you need?"

"Just two more to go. Say half an hour?"

The Muslim nodded.

The archaeologist rolled his neck then squatted down in front of the eighth ossuary containing Yosef's spouse, Sarah. Having established a good system by now, he deftly pulled away the lid, flipped it, and rested it on the stone floor so it could be used as a pallet for the extracted bones.