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An Archaeological Expedition
Topic Started: Dec 30 2008, 08:35 PM (234 Views)
Rhadamanthus
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Legitimist

Dongola, Nubia, Empire of the Romans

Peter Bar Talmai sat somewhat impatiently in Dongola, the foremost city of Roman Nubia, as a bureacrat read over his proposal. Yes, the man was supposed to be an "expert" of some sort, but Bar Talmai had long considered the goverment's men of letters to be somewhat suspect. He preferred independent scholars, like himself. He had little confidence that the man sitting in front of him would really appreciate the importance and magnificence of what he was suggesting, and its importance to the history of this part of the empire.

Bar Talmai was not a Nubian himself, but a Syrian. Nevertheless, he was intimately familiar with the Nubian country. His family had left his village in Syria and moved to Alexandria when he was still young, but he himself had travelled south when he reached manhood, looking for adventure on the fringes of the imperial realm. He had developed himself into an expert in archaeology, and considered the lands of northeast Africa to be his special area of mastery. And he hoped that his grand expedition would be the crowning achievement of his career, and he prayed that it would not be halted by some lesser's ignorance.

For its part, Dongola was a special city. Sitting on the northern bank of the great bend in the Nile between the third and fourth cataracts, Dongola had been the capital of the great kingdom of Makuria, the central of the three medieval Christian Nubian states. This was a land where Christianity and Islam had struggled painfully, before the empire returned to Egypt and then reached southwards to aid its Christian brethren. These were old lands, and old civilizations lay under the dust of ages. He was near the empire's borders in this region, and on both sides, he could see the great country of Nubia.

But Bar Talmai did not have the finances to conduct his expedition so he had reluctantly had to apply for government funding. And he had no idea whether some worthless government man would see the manifold importance of his mission.
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East Anarx
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Anarchitect

Bar Talmai received a package from an anonymous donor the very next day. Contained within was several thousand gold grams, engraved with a symbol identifying them as minted from the Bank of Völsunga. There was nothing else that could possibly identify its sender.
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Rhadamanthus
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Peter Bar Talmai was shocked and delighted by the mysterious parcel. Suddenly he was no longer beholden to the buereacrats and he could not only be sure that his expedition would happen, but would be able to manage it completely himself, without having to answer to any other. He was as delighted as possible.

Recognizing the mark of the "Bank of Völsunga," he smiled slightly. Thule and its ways seemed out of sorts to most Romans and to Bar Talmai himself, but he was glad that such existed in the world. The capability to perform an act of such generosity, Bar Talmai thought, was a good reflection on their society, and more importantly, on the unnamed individual or individuals who had seen fit to provide him this funding.
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Rhadamanthus
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OOC: I will get back to this as soon as I can recall my actual plans
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