have been concealed by the Trojans. And there’s a tantalizing snippet of evidence. One of those epic fragments says the palladion had “fallen from heaven”, a gift to Dardanos, founder of Troy. That could be metaphorical, meaning an extraordinary treasure, a gift of the gods. Or it could be literal.’
‘I’ve got it.’ Rebecca clapped her hands. ‘ Fallen from heave n. A meteorite.’
Dillen looked at her. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time a meteorite has been venerated.’
‘So this is what you think we might find here?’ Rebecca said quietly. ‘That’s so cool.’
‘Just guesswork. But the idea that the most sacred object from ancient Troy, the richest city in the Bronze Age world, should have been a little wooden statue doesn’t ring true. If a thousand years later the Romans had the true palladion, it would have been an extraordinary object, something people came to gawp at, an object that would resonate through history, like the golden menorah they took from the Jewish temple.’
‘So Odysseus and Diomedes made their way into Troy by a secret passage,’ Jeremy mused. ‘Maybe the palladion’s what Maurice is really after, at the end of the tunnel he’s found.’
Rebecca shook her head. ‘He wants to find a hieroglyphic inscription. Not Agamemnon was here , but Rameses was here . He says he wants to prove that Egypt truly was the superpower of the ancient world. He says that’s the only reason he ever leaves Egypt to come on these digs with Dad.’
Dillen cast a glance at Jeremy, and they both grinned. ‘Your dad and Maurice go back a long way,’ Dillen said. ‘And don’t discount the lure of treasure. I can remember interviewing Maurice when he was applying for a place at the university. He’d brought along the catalogue from the Tutankhamun exhibition, the one that travelled the world in the 1970s. It had the famous golden mask of King Tut on the cover, and Maurice was almost weeping with excitement when he showed it to me. I knew then I had to offer him a place.’
‘Dad says every archaeologist worthy of the name secretly wants to find treasure,’ Rebecca said. ‘He told me they may spend their careers specializing in something as dry as bones, but unless they have that fire within them, they’ll never have the vision, the passion, to take their exploration that one step further, to make the big leap of imagination.’
‘Mmm.’ Dillen smiled. ‘Where have I heard that before? I seem to remember telling that to Jack and Maurice in their first tutorial with me. And who was it who told it to me? Sir Leonard Woolley, or was it Sir Mortimer Wheeler? And they’d been told it by Sir Arthur Evans. And he’d been told it by Heinrich Schliemann. It’s the thread that ties all the great archaeologists together. Not science, not techniques, but the passion, the drive. The yearning for discovery.’
‘And the willingness to take risks,’ Rebecca said.
Jeremy gestured at the jumble of overgrown ruins behind them. ‘The palladion. It could have been anywhere here?’
Dillen nodded. ‘The temple to Pallas would have been close to where we are now, though I fear it may have been where Schliemann put in his great trench. But temples often had repositories, underground strongrooms. That’s where something as sacred as the palladion might have been kept.’
‘Maybe the palladion is what Agamemnon was really after when he came here,’ Rebecca said. ‘Maybe that’s what the Trojan War was actually about. Not about women, about Helen of Troy, but about treasure.’
‘Maybe that’s what Schliemann was after too,’ Jeremy added. ‘And maybe he didn’t find it here, so he went in search of it at Mycenae, where Agamemnon might have taken it after looting and burning Troy.’
‘There’s nothing about the palladion in Schliemann’s notes,’ Dillen said. ‘Jack asked me to look at them before coming out here. But Schliemann was a man of powerful imagination, and capable of
‘I’ve got it.’ Rebecca clapped her hands. ‘ Fallen from heave n. A meteorite.’
Dillen looked at her. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time a meteorite has been venerated.’
‘So this is what you think we might find here?’ Rebecca said quietly. ‘That’s so cool.’
‘Just guesswork. But the idea that the most sacred object from ancient Troy, the richest city in the Bronze Age world, should have been a little wooden statue doesn’t ring true. If a thousand years later the Romans had the true palladion, it would have been an extraordinary object, something people came to gawp at, an object that would resonate through history, like the golden menorah they took from the Jewish temple.’
‘So Odysseus and Diomedes made their way into Troy by a secret passage,’ Jeremy mused. ‘Maybe the palladion’s what Maurice is really after, at the end of the tunnel he’s found.’
Rebecca shook her head. ‘He wants to find a hieroglyphic inscription. Not Agamemnon was here , but Rameses was here . He says he wants to prove that Egypt truly was the superpower of the ancient world. He says that’s the only reason he ever leaves Egypt to come on these digs with Dad.’
Dillen cast a glance at Jeremy, and they both grinned. ‘Your dad and Maurice go back a long way,’ Dillen said. ‘And don’t discount the lure of treasure. I can remember interviewing Maurice when he was applying for a place at the university. He’d brought along the catalogue from the Tutankhamun exhibition, the one that travelled the world in the 1970s. It had the famous golden mask of King Tut on the cover, and Maurice was almost weeping with excitement when he showed it to me. I knew then I had to offer him a place.’
‘Dad says every archaeologist worthy of the name secretly wants to find treasure,’ Rebecca said. ‘He told me they may spend their careers specializing in something as dry as bones, but unless they have that fire within them, they’ll never have the vision, the passion, to take their exploration that one step further, to make the big leap of imagination.’
‘Mmm.’ Dillen smiled. ‘Where have I heard that before? I seem to remember telling that to Jack and Maurice in their first tutorial with me. And who was it who told it to me? Sir Leonard Woolley, or was it Sir Mortimer Wheeler? And they’d been told it by Sir Arthur Evans. And he’d been told it by Heinrich Schliemann. It’s the thread that ties all the great archaeologists together. Not science, not techniques, but the passion, the drive. The yearning for discovery.’
‘And the willingness to take risks,’ Rebecca said.
Jeremy gestured at the jumble of overgrown ruins behind them. ‘The palladion. It could have been anywhere here?’
Dillen nodded. ‘The temple to Pallas would have been close to where we are now, though I fear it may have been where Schliemann put in his great trench. But temples often had repositories, underground strongrooms. That’s where something as sacred as the palladion might have been kept.’
‘Maybe the palladion is what Agamemnon was really after when he came here,’ Rebecca said. ‘Maybe that’s what the Trojan War was actually about. Not about women, about Helen of Troy, but about treasure.’
‘Maybe that’s what Schliemann was after too,’ Jeremy added. ‘And maybe he didn’t find it here, so he went in search of it at Mycenae, where Agamemnon might have taken it after looting and burning Troy.’
‘There’s nothing about the palladion in Schliemann’s notes,’ Dillen said. ‘Jack asked me to look at them before coming out here. But Schliemann was a man of powerful imagination, and capable of
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