The Coptic Museum, Cairo
Marcianus surveyed the work of his brethren like a protective father. Their activities had been in the planning for so many years. To see them come together before his eyes was positively entrancing.
The surface of one of the room’s long, glass display cases had been covered in a white cloth and the necessary materials gradually laid upon it. The texts expert had located Codex II, containing the Gospel of Thomas, and the second tract was now on the makeshift work surface, open to its first page.
To its right, three trays had been assembled, surrounded by numerous bottles and vials the group had brought with them from the staging flat. They had more than would be required; but until the instructions for the solutions had been fully decoded, there was no way to know which would be needed.
As the translator called out the ingredients one by one, the chemist selected the jars from the ensemble of supplies. The numbers that followed each ingredient indicated relative proportions, and the chemist had opted for 20ml units. As he located each ingredient in turn, he scooped a corresponding number of precisely levelled measures into its respective tray. The main binding agent was to be an equal mixture of water and palm oil, both of which were at the ready.
Soon, the three solutions were taking form, scoop by scoop and drop by drop. All save for the ingredients they hadn’t been able to decode prior to their arrival. The chemist turned to the translator.
’I need the rest.’
Nodding, the translator left his side and walked to the far end of the table. There, one of the brothers had opened Codex I to the first of the two pages that hadn’t been contained in the online scans. Next to it sat the keystone, and beside that a sheet of blank paper. Marcianus hovered nearby.
‘Call out the remaining ingredients as you decode them,’ he instructed. ‘There shouldn’t be more than ten or twelve to go.’