The 13th Enumeration (29 page)

Chapter 63

Capernaum, Israel

Zane worked the morning away hauling loads of debris. At lunch break, he ate a meager meal of beef jerky, an apple, and some crackers, all washed down with a fair amount of water. After lunch was over, he again took up his wheelbarrow and started hauling loads up the hill. Every fourth load, he exchanged the bottle he carried in the wheelbarrow for a full one. The work would have been almost unbearable if he had not been used to the temperature. Tucson, Arizona, was about the same latitude as Galilee. Having lived in a desert environment most of his life, Zane knew he could become dehydrated very quickly.

It was late afternoon, and Zane was on his way back from his eleventh trip. He had just dumped his load and was enjoying the easy walk back down the trail when he heard an unusual bird call out of the bushes. Looking to see, he tripped and fell on the trail. His water bottle was the only thing in the wheelbarrow at the time, but it went flying. With an exasperated groan, he watched the water bottle roll down the trail into a dense tangle of thornbushes and wild olive trees. Walking around the bushes, he looked for a painless way into the thorn tangle. He thought for a second about just leaving it, but no, he’d never been one to leave trash behind and he did not intend to start now.

On the back side of the tangle of bushes and thorns, away from the trail, he found a narrow path and made his way into the dense growth. He found his water bottle just as it was emptying its final precious contents onto the ground. When he reached down to grab it, he noticed the water was not puddling on the ground but instead was just disappearing. Desert sand always sucked up water fast, but this was even more extreme than usual.

As he knelt closer to investigate, he heard a muffled sound as if water were splashing onto a hard surface deep under the ground. Was there some underground cavity here?

With his hands, Zane brushed the dirt where his water had disappeared. Under a shallow covering of dirt and sand, he found a hard rock surface. Brushing further, he found the straight edge of a large stone. More interested now, he followed the edge of the stone, brushing the dirt away as he went. After about twelve inches he found a square corner. It too led to another straight edge and ended in a corner.

Both corners of this stone were almost perfect ninety-degree angles. With serious interest and growing excitement, Zane uncovered two more sides and found an almost perfect square stone twenty-four inches on each side. Zane was not a trained archeologist, but he knew perfectly square stones were not a common occurrence in nature. This stone had been cut by the hand of man. Beneath it was some sort of hollow cavity or void.

Carefully, Zane re-covered the stone with dirt and sand. Picking up leaves and other debris, he let them sprinkle through his fingers over the sand and dirt. Cautiously, he made his way out of the thick tangle with his empty water bottle and returned to his wheelbarrow. What should he do about what he had found? Should he go to Efran or Rachael? Should he sneak back tonight and explore it himself? With questions going through his mind like fire, he returned to the pile and loaded the wheelbarrow. The rest of the afternoon, he scarcely noticed the passing of time. By the end of the day, he had decided he would wait until everyone had turned in for the night, then sneak over to Rachael’s tent to see if she wanted to go with him to investigate what he had found.

The hours after sundown passed agonizingly slowly. Finally, at ten p.m., everyone had been in their tents for a couple of hours and the lights had long ago been put out. Not a sound came from the tents. With carefully placed steps, Zane stealthily made his way to Rachael’s tent. Thankfully it was still at the edge of camp where it had been since spring. Zane remembered where her bed had been placed from the few times he had been inside her tent, and he approached her tent from that direction. “Rachael?” he whispered.

Receiving no response, he whispered a bit more loudly, “Rachael, it’s Zane. I’ve found something.”

A sleepy voice replied quietly from the tent, “Zane? What are you doing here at this hour?”

“That’s what I am trying to tell you,” Zane said in an excited whisper. He edged a little closer to the tent fabric and raised his voice to a low tone. “This afternoon, I literally stumbled on to something, and I’m going to check it out. Do you want to come with me?”

Now a whispered voice, fully awake, replied, “Give me a minute.”

“Bring your camera with you.”

After two minutes, Rachael appeared at her tent door. Without a sound, they both walked back the way Zane had come. Zane headed back up to his tent to get his gear and the crowbars he had stashed that afternoon.

“What is this all about, Zane?” Rachael asked, slightly aggravated but curious.

Zane briefly explained. “I’m not sure if it is anything, so I thought I would check it out first. If it turns out to be something, we can notify Efran.” He turned on a small flashlight to provide enough light to see the frown on Rachael’s face.

“You know this could get us in trouble, Zane. We’re supposed to notify the dig director immediately upon discovery of any artifacts.”

“That’s just it—we haven’t found any artifacts yet. For all I know, this may just be my overactive imagination. If you tell me not to go check this out, I will abide by your wishes.”

Rachael looked at Zane as if what he said was ridiculous. “Do you think I would be able to go to sleep tonight without knowing if you’d really found something or not?”

Zane smiled with boyish enthusiasm. “That’s what I hoped you’d say.”

Picking up his tools and climbing backpack, Zane led the way up the trail to the dense growth of bushes and trees. Approaching from the back, he and Rachael entered the tangle and knelt where Zane’s water had spilled earlier that day. He pointed to the sand and dirt. “The square rock is under there. I think it would be best if we put our back to the trail to shield our light. If you hold the flashlight, I’ll see what I can do with the stone.”

Zane quickly uncovered the stone again. This time, he expanded the area six inches past the edges. When he had removed all of the loose dirt and sand, he took a crowbar, placed the point along one edge which was wider than the others, and pried upwards. The stone moved slightly.

As Rachael watched, he put down the crowbar and removed his Leatherman pocket tool from his backpack. Folding open the flat file, he set it to one side and took up the crowbar again. Placing the point into the widest crack, he again pried up. This time the stone moved a quarter-inch. Rachael carefully slid the Leatherman tool into the crack at a point where it was snug before Zane could reach for it. He looked over in surprise. “You read my mind.”

Her own excitement showing, she replied, “Come on, get back to work.”

Zane removed the crowbar, and the stone held its position because of the file Rachael had inserted. This time Zane was able to get a little more purchase on the stone, and prying down, he moved it another half-inch. Rachael, ready with the file, slid it further into the crack. Now Zane was able to fully insert his crowbar.

“When I lift it this time, place the other crowbar under the stone.”

When Zane pried up once more, Rachael removed the file from the crack and grabbed the crowbar, inserting it completely and prying upwards. With a grating sound, the edge of the stone lifted completely free of its surroundings.

They could now see the edge of the stone. It was about three inches thick.

Zane placed his hands under the stone, and with feet spread, lifted the edge until the stone stood on end. With care, he laid it over and let go.

“There’s a deep hole here, Zane,” Rachael whispered, excited. “I can’t see the bottom.”

Zane reached into his backpack and pulled out a stronger flashlight. Pointing it into the hole, he turned it on. Twenty-five feet down, the beam showed the floor of a cave. There did not appear to be any means of climbing down.

“What do you want to do?” he asked in a serious whisper.

“What do you mean, what do I want to do? Let’s go find out what’s down there!”

He grinned. “I was hoping you would say that.”

Once more reaching into his pack, Zane removed his climbing rope. Taking one end, he carefully snaked it around the trunk of one the larger olive trees about ten feet away. He pulled on the rope until both ends were the same length. Zane then took both strands of the rope and tied a figure eight so it would not slip if only one side was pulled on inadvertently. After tying the knot, he threw both ends down into the hole and heard them hit the ground.

“You want to draw straws to see who goes first?”

Rachael desperately wanted to volunteer, but since Zane had found the cave, she said, “You found it . . . you should go first.”

“When I reach the bottom, pull up one of the ropes and tie my pack to it. Then lower it to me.” Zane grabbed both ropes, and hand over hand, let himself down into the dark mouth of the opening. When he reached the bottom, Rachael pulled one end of the rope back up and followed his instructions. Before Zane had untied the pack, Rachael was on her way down. When she reached the bottom, Zane handed her the larger flashlight, and they turned around to shine their lights into the darkness. The tunnel stretched away into inky blackness at a slight decline. It appeared to head in the same general direction as the trail.

In whispered awe, Rachael said, “Well, what are we waiting for?”

As they walked down the dark tunnel, their lights played off the rough rock walls. The tunnel appeared to be partly man-made and partly natural. At some point in the past, someone—or many someones—had straightened and enlarged a natural passage. In some places the walls of the tunnel brushed both their shoulders. In others, it widened into open, cave-like rooms.

After they had gone about three hundred feet down the tunnel, it opened into a large natural room. Shining their lights around, they saw where the tunnel continued down at a similar decline as the trail above.

“Continue on down the tunnel or check out this room first?” Zane asked.

“Let’s check out the room. If it looks like there are too many openings or we might get lost, we can return to the main tunnel and keep going from there.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

Turning to their left, they followed the edge of the open room around to another smaller opening. This one ended about thirty feet further back, so they entered to see what they might find. As they approached the end of the tunnel, they almost missed the opening in the floor. Just as Rachael was about to step off into the darkness beneath, Zane grabbed her arm in a grip of iron and pulled her back.

Shakily, Rachael said, “That was close. Wasn’t watching the floor. I was just focused on the end of my light. You’ve got to quit rescuing me like that.”

“I’ll stop rescuing you when you stop trying to kill yourself,” Zane replied.

Kneeling down, they both shined their lights into the dark hole. Thirty feet below, their lights reflected off water. Looking closer, they could see the hole had been enlarged and rounded by the hands of men. It looked to be roughly six feet around and irregular. The walls were rough, without any obvious cracks.

“Looks like this was used as a well at some point,” Rachael said.

Getting back to their feet, they explored the rest of the small room with the beams of their flashlights. Zane noted several large cracks in the walls. Carefully they made their way back to the main room and headed further down the tunnel.

“I know it’s hard to tell distances and angles underground, but it appears to me that this tunnel is heading back down the hill in the direction of our camp,” Zane stated.

“That’s what I’ve been thinking too,” Rachael replied. “The opening we found was obviously not often used, if ever. Had it been intended for regular use, there likely would have been stairs cut into the tunnel wall for access. It looks more like an escape route than an entrance.”

“Which means,“ Zane continued, “wherever we are heading is likely to be the point of entry.”

Continuing on, they moved further into the darkness as their feeble light was swallowed by the blackness. After walking another six or seven hundred feet, they saw the tunnel widen again up ahead. Their attention was drawn to the wall of the tunnel. Rachael gasped. Into the walls of the cave had been carved two long shelves about sixteen inches deep and ten feet long. On the top shelf sat all manner of clay vessels with lids. On the second shelf were an assortment of clay tablets, and on one end of the shelf, several small bowls. Looking closer, they saw all manner of coins in the bowls. Most appeared to be well-worn bronze or silver. There also appeared to be several gold coins.

Zane shined the light at Rachael. She was mute with incredulity. “Zane,” she barely whispered, “this is unbelievable.”

There were tears in her eyes. “Look at the all the tablets—some of them are written in Hebrew. Others appear to be in Persian.”

Carefully lifting the lids off one of the clay pots, they saw it contained a dried leather pouch covering what was obviously a scroll of some kind. “Scrolls!” Rachael exclaimed. “Oh, what an amazing find! Do you know what this could mean for the history of Israel?” Carefully, she lifted another lid and found another scroll.

As she made her way down the top shelf, Zane shined his light against the opposite wall. “Incredible!” he muttered. Rachael was so absorbed she did not hear his exclamation. Zane turned back around and took her by the arm. Engrossed, she resisted.