verdict—whether she’ll be allowed into eternity. Heaven. The part-lion,-hippo,-crocodile crouching near the center post of the scale is Ammit. If your heart is too heavy with allthe sinful things you’ve done, Ammit will devour it, and that’s the end of you.”
“Guess Tashat passed then, since her heart is lighter than the feather.”
“Usually the scale is evenly balanced, probably because the gods are supposed to pass judgment, not mere mortals. Dave thinks it’s just sloppy workmanship.”
“Dave Broverman is full of it!”
A laugh caught in her throat at the unexpected outburst. “I hope you realize you were treading on hallowed ground this afternoon.”
He grinned, an admission in itself. “Not at first, but yeah.”
She set Sam’s stew on the floor. “Well, next time you ride into battle over that particular mummy, if there is a next time and you really want to live dangerously, try dropping Nefertiti’s name—Akhenaten’s Queen, the famous one in that beautiful painted head?”
Max nodded. “Why?”
“Some very respected Egyptologists think
she
was Smenkhkare.”
“Jesus, I wish I’d known that this afternoon!” Motioning for her to follow him, Max went back out onto the porch, to the walnut table she used as a desk.
“What did you mean by plus or minus twenty-five years? Doesn’t the inscription on her coffin say when she died, or at least when she was born?”
“Yes and no. The Egyptians wrote dates as Year One or Year Five, or whatever, of a particular pharaoh’s reign, but there are three different dates on her coffin. Two of them are suspect, but still—”
“Suspect how?”
“Most Egyptologists think Akhenaten ruled seventeen years, yet—here, I’ll show you.” She pulled a piece of paper toward her and wrote three names, adding the length of each pharaoh’s reign in parentheses. Then, following each one, she wrote the date from Tashat’s coffin.
Akhenaten (17)
Year 18
Smenkhkare (3?)
Year 4
Ramses (2)
Year 1
Max caught on right away. “So there shouldn’t be a Year Eighteen for Akhenaten, or a Year Four for Smenkhkare?”
Kate nodded. “It’s not just a list of kings, either, because three pharaohs are missing—Tutankhamen, Ay, and Horemheb, in that order—between Smenkhkare and Ramses. Horemheb is considered the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty because he married into the royal family. There are twenty-four years, at least, between Smenkhkare—whoever he or she was—and Ramses.”
“So the first Ramses begins a new royal line, the Nineteenth Dynasty?”
Kate nodded again. “Another military man, like Horemheb.”
“If Ramses wasn’t in line to inherit, then whoever wrote those dates had to be alive to know that he ever sat on the throne. That means the Ramses Year One is the most telling date.”
She was beginning to appreciate that Max Cavanaugh was no mean practitioner of the diagnostician’s art. “I agree, but that still doesn’t explain why there are three dates instead of
one.”
“And the question mark after Smenkhkare?”
“No one knows for sure whether he followed Akhenaten or was only his coregent. If it was the latter, Smenkhkare’s reign was simultaneous with the final years of Akhenaten. Nefertiti
did
disappear from public view during the last three years of her husband’s reign, but nobody knows where they started counting with a coregent, either. That’s one reason there are different chronologies of the pharaohs.”
‘Too damn many pieces of the puzzle are missing,” he muttered, threading his fingers through his hair. “Too much we may never know.” Worried that he was beginning to feeloverwhelmed, Kate tried to think of something she could give him to hold on to, that wasn’t in doubt.
“I’ll admit to some wishful thinking, but I can’t accept the reasoning of someone like Dave Broverman any more than you can. Not yet. Because there’s another verse on her cartonnage.” Kate paused, then began to
“Guess Tashat passed then, since her heart is lighter than the feather.”
“Usually the scale is evenly balanced, probably because the gods are supposed to pass judgment, not mere mortals. Dave thinks it’s just sloppy workmanship.”
“Dave Broverman is full of it!”
A laugh caught in her throat at the unexpected outburst. “I hope you realize you were treading on hallowed ground this afternoon.”
He grinned, an admission in itself. “Not at first, but yeah.”
She set Sam’s stew on the floor. “Well, next time you ride into battle over that particular mummy, if there is a next time and you really want to live dangerously, try dropping Nefertiti’s name—Akhenaten’s Queen, the famous one in that beautiful painted head?”
Max nodded. “Why?”
“Some very respected Egyptologists think
she
was Smenkhkare.”
“Jesus, I wish I’d known that this afternoon!” Motioning for her to follow him, Max went back out onto the porch, to the walnut table she used as a desk.
“What did you mean by plus or minus twenty-five years? Doesn’t the inscription on her coffin say when she died, or at least when she was born?”
“Yes and no. The Egyptians wrote dates as Year One or Year Five, or whatever, of a particular pharaoh’s reign, but there are three different dates on her coffin. Two of them are suspect, but still—”
“Suspect how?”
“Most Egyptologists think Akhenaten ruled seventeen years, yet—here, I’ll show you.” She pulled a piece of paper toward her and wrote three names, adding the length of each pharaoh’s reign in parentheses. Then, following each one, she wrote the date from Tashat’s coffin.
Akhenaten (17)
Year 18
Smenkhkare (3?)
Year 4
Ramses (2)
Year 1
Max caught on right away. “So there shouldn’t be a Year Eighteen for Akhenaten, or a Year Four for Smenkhkare?”
Kate nodded. “It’s not just a list of kings, either, because three pharaohs are missing—Tutankhamen, Ay, and Horemheb, in that order—between Smenkhkare and Ramses. Horemheb is considered the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty because he married into the royal family. There are twenty-four years, at least, between Smenkhkare—whoever he or she was—and Ramses.”
“So the first Ramses begins a new royal line, the Nineteenth Dynasty?”
Kate nodded again. “Another military man, like Horemheb.”
“If Ramses wasn’t in line to inherit, then whoever wrote those dates had to be alive to know that he ever sat on the throne. That means the Ramses Year One is the most telling date.”
She was beginning to appreciate that Max Cavanaugh was no mean practitioner of the diagnostician’s art. “I agree, but that still doesn’t explain why there are three dates instead of
one.”
“And the question mark after Smenkhkare?”
“No one knows for sure whether he followed Akhenaten or was only his coregent. If it was the latter, Smenkhkare’s reign was simultaneous with the final years of Akhenaten. Nefertiti
did
disappear from public view during the last three years of her husband’s reign, but nobody knows where they started counting with a coregent, either. That’s one reason there are different chronologies of the pharaohs.”
‘Too damn many pieces of the puzzle are missing,” he muttered, threading his fingers through his hair. “Too much we may never know.” Worried that he was beginning to feeloverwhelmed, Kate tried to think of something she could give him to hold on to, that wasn’t in doubt.
“I’ll admit to some wishful thinking, but I can’t accept the reasoning of someone like Dave Broverman any more than you can. Not yet. Because there’s another verse on her cartonnage.” Kate paused, then began to
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