Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 82 Clay Tablets
Although Liang En and the others did not visit the royal mummy hall due to taboo reasons, they still went to a free animal mummy hall nearby to have a look.

It has to be said that the ancient Egyptians had a lot of experience in preserving animal corpses for a long time, so Liang En and the others saw mummies of a series of animals such as baboons, crocodiles, lions, and cats in this room.

Compared with the mortuary next to it where there are a series of mummies of members of the ancient Egyptian royal family, this room feels much better. At least most of the mummies are stuffed in plaster shells, and it seems that there is no So exciting.

After coming out of the museum, the time has reached 3 pm.Because they were very hungry and this place was a tourist area in the city center, Liang En and the others simply followed a group of French tourists to a nearby street to find something to fill their stomachs.

To be honest, things around tourist spots all over the world are similar. For example, things like barbecue stalls exist wherever there are people.It's just that there is no beer to drink when eating barbecue here for some reason, only some tea can be used.

After eating a large barbecue burrito for each person and a large glass of freshly squeezed juice, Liang En and the others, who were starving from starvation just now, finally came to life and planned their next travel goals by the way.

Because the pyramid will be visited by a group tomorrow, after a brief discussion, Liang En and the others decided to take a stroll around, looking for any good things by the way.

Although Liang En does not plan to buy any cultural relics and historic sites discovered through illegal excavation, in order to develop tourism, there will be some state-run souvenir shops near various tourist spots in Egypt.

Different from Liang En's last world, the state-run souvenir shop in Egypt in this world has some functions similar to the cultural relics stores operated by Huaxia in the early years, and can buy some legal cultural relics.

"I feel that all places related to cultural relics in Egypt are placed in the same style." After entering the door, Fan Meng whispered to Liang En in Chinese.

Just like the museum just now, the things here fill the room to the brim.All kinds of imitations of cultural relics and ancient Egyptian-style artworks occupy almost every inch of space in the room.

Because of Champollion's gift, Liang En simply chatted with the clerk in Arabic after hearing a few sentences in accented English.After learning the purpose of Liang En and the others in the store, the clerk brought Liang En to a row of cabinets.

"If you want real cultural relics, there are all in these cabinets." The clerk pointed to five or six glass cabinets and said, "Look here first, and call me when you see something."

"Are these things legal?" Although he had done his homework beforehand, Liang En still asked, "We are foreign tourists, can the things bought here be legally taken out of the customs?"

"Of course, and this is the meaning of the existence of our shops." The uncle clerk introduced, "If you buy something from us, we will issue you a certificate of authenticity, so that you can bring those Things are coming home."

"Why do you feel that everything here is full of tatters?" After the uncle clerk left, Fan Meng looked at the things in front of him and said in bewilderment.

Because these things in the glass cabinet are either some rusty Arabic-style bronzes, or fragments of various stones or mud, only a few gold and silver coins in plastic boxes look worthwhile.

"No, no, there are many treasures in here." Liang En looked at the fragments on the clay tablets and stones with sparkling eyes. "They may not have much value economically, but historically they are priceless."

Obviously, the Egyptian cultural relics department's appraisal level of many things is similar to that of Fan Meng.In their eyes, the value of cultural relics is obviously related to the material and volume, so naturally some important things will flow into this kind of store.

"And don't forget that, in principle, cultural relics before 1883, whether they were unearthed or not, as long as they are newly discovered, they are not even allowed to be transported out of Egypt for research, exhibition and research without the special approval of their Ministry of Culture or even higher officials. Allowed, let alone privately owned."

Liang En had read the laws of Egypt before he came, so he sighed and said while looking at the messy things in front of him.

"Don't look at the things that are placed in this place now that look like garbage, but this is the only legal cultural relic that we can buy in this country."

Because there were too many things piled up here, Liang En directly used a [Detection (N)] card in order to avoid missing any good things.In an instant, a white light emerged from the lower floor of the cabinet.

Bending down, Liang En found that what glowed white there was a small pile of broken clay tablets.And after a quick look at the two lines of cuneiform writing on one of them, he realized that the tablet was describing the Akkadian Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh is the oldest epic of mankind. It originated from Sumerian poems and legends. There are different sources and versions of the story. Because the entire epic has been handed down for more than 2000 years, every existing version Neither is complete.

The earliest of these tablets comes from ancient Babylon, and together with the Akkadian tablets discovered later, form the source of the modern translation of Gilgamesh.In the 19s and 7s, the entire known epic had already been translated.

As for why things from the Middle East were found in Egypt, the reason is also very simple. After all, there were extensive exchanges between those countries in the ancient Middle East and ancient Egypt, so it is not uncommon to find things from the other side in their respective territories.

The biggest reason why the clay slab that Liang En was targeting appeared here and was sold as goods was that it was mixed in the pile of broken clay slabs the size of a basketball on the ground, so it was treated as a large pile of garbage.

And after careful observation, Liang En discovered some interesting things from this large pile of clay tablets.So if there are no accidents, you should be able to cut a lot of prices.

"How much is this pile of clay shards?" After making up his mind, Liang En called the clerk over and asked, pointing to the pile of shards under the counter. "I hope you can offer a more honest price."

"12000 euros." The clerk took out a book from the back of the cabinet and looked at it.

"These things are the oldest here, so although they are fragments from different places, and they are broken, but because of the text, their prices will not be too cheap."

"If they are all genuine, then this price is still appropriate." Liang En nodded after thinking for a while and said, "But it is not appropriate to sell at this price on the premise that there are counterfeit items in it--"

"How could this be a forgery——" the clerk opened his mouth to argue immediately after hearing this, but shut his mouth immediately before finishing his sentence, because Liang En showed him a photo he had just taken.

In the photo, a clay tablet is circled in red, and the section of this clay tablet is inlaid with a plastic sequin commonly used on clothes.Evidently, such a thing could not have existed at the time when these tablets were made.

"Uh—I'm sorry." After bending down to look at the clay tablets, the clerk immediately bowed to Liang En and took out his mobile phone to ask his superiors for instructions. Soon, an Arab in a suit and leather shoes came from outside walked in.

"Hello, I'm the manager here." The middle-aged man said. "I'm very sorry for the fakes in this pile of clay tablet fragments. So if you still want these things, we will compensate you for the price—"

(End of this chapter)