Charlotte leaned over and started rotating the lower vertebrae of the spine while scrutinizing every bone and cushion of disc material. “Everything looks good here.”
“Agreed.” Bersei glanced at the compact structure of the pelvic bones that provided definitive clues relating to gender. “And you were right about the gender. Definitely male.” He ran his fingers along the contours of bone where the genitalia would be. “The sciatic notch is narrow, the preauricular area’s got no indentations and flattens.”
“No babies coming out through there. No infants left motherless, at least.”
So far Giovanni Bersei was pleased. Determining gender from skeletal remains was never easy as the most obvious gender-specific traits occurred in the soft tissues, not the bones. Depending on a variety of factors, from diet and lifestyle, to the physical stress of the subject’s occupation, the female human skeleton could easily morph its soft tissue in ways that conditioned the skeletal frame to appear almost identical to its male counterpart. Increased muscle mass would be an obvious equalizer, demanding thicker bones to support them, especially in areas where ligaments would attach. But the pelvis’s birthing canal was fairly discernable in most female skeletons.
“So—arms or legs?” he inquired.
“Arms first.”
They shifted along the skeleton, resuming a minute analysis of the long bones, starting with the humerus and working down to the paired set of each arm’s lower half—the ulna and radius.
Something caught her eye and she moved even closer to sharpen the lenses’ resolution. There was significant damage to the inner surfaces of the bones joining above the wrist. “What’s this? Looks like they went through a grinder.”
“It’s on this side too. The damage is contained to just above the wrist,” Bersei confirmed. “Do you see oxidation, like long streaks?”
“Yeah, could be metallic residue. Maybe hematite.” She saw something else. “Hang on.” She repositioned the lens. “Fibers have been lodged in the bone. Your side?”
“Yes. Get a sample of that. Looks like wood.”
Charlotte went into the tool drawer, removed a pair of tweezers and a small plastic vial, and proceeded to pluck away the fibers from the bone.
Meanwhile, Bersei was already moving down near the skeleton’s feet. He bent over to get a better look at something there.
“What do you see?” she asked, standing and setting down the vial and tweezers.
He waved her closer. “Come take a look.”
Training her lenses on the area just below the shin, the paired set of fibula and tibia looked healthy. But nestled in the upper notches of each foot were deep, gritty patches scooped into the bones. Two bones in the left foot had been fractured.
“Look at the damage between the second and third metatarsals,” Bersei noted. “It’s similar to the arms.”
“Same rust-colored streaking,” Hennesey added. “Definitely came from some kind of impaled metal.”
“Judging from the fractures in the second metatarsal on the left foot, it was a nail. Do you see where the point hit the bone and split it?”
Hennesey saw a diamond-shaped indentation stamped in the fissure’s midpoint and detected more wood splinters. “Unbelievable. Looks like the nail missed the first time.” Thinking that one human could inflict this kind of damage on another nauseated her. What kind of animal could be capable of such cruelty?
“Most likely because the feet were nailed on top of one another,” Dr. Bersei stated flatly. He noticed another oddity in the area of the knees and positioned himself for a better view.
“What do you see?”
“Look at this.”
When Charlotte focused on the knee joint, the damage was immediately apparent. Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse. “Oh, God.”
“Completely blown out,” Bersei gasped. “Look at those tears in the cartilage and the hairline fractures below the knee.”
“His knees were broken?”
“Yes, of course.”
“What do you mean?”
Bersei straightened and flipped his lenses up. His complexion was ashen. “It’s quite clear what happened here. This man was crucified.”
17
******
Temple Mount
“Surely you don’t expect me to desecrate the remains of the dead.” Utterly insulted, Razak folded his arms across his chest and frowned at Barton. “Have you no conscience?”
“It’s important, Razak.” He held out the gloves again.
Razak pushed the gloves away. “I will not permit this!” His voice reverberated loudly off the chamber’s walls. “You’ll have to get authorization from the Waqf.”
Akbar peered through the blast hole, looking alarmed.
Avoiding the guard’s glare, Barton spoke quietly. “You and I both know
that will yield no results. In the interest of time, we’ll need to take some initiative to find answers. That’s why we’re here.”
Still fuming, Razak turned to Akbar. “Everything’s fine.” He motioned for the guard to go away. He rubbed his temples, then turned back to the archaeologist. “What good can come of this? They are only bones in those boxes.”
“That’s not certain.”
Razak spread his hands. “If that isn’t the case, then why didn’t the thieves take these boxes too?” He motioned toward the ossuaries.
“We need to be sure,” Barton remained steadfast. “Every possibility must be explored. As it stands, the only clues we have are in this room. It would be a major oversight to forgo studying these ossuaries.”
For a few seconds, the crypt was deathly silent.
“All right,” Razak finally yielded. “One box at a time. But this you will do alone.”
“Understood.”
“Allah save us,” Razak muttered. “Go on, then. Do what you must.” He turned to face away from the scene.
Relieved, Barton knelt in front of the first ossuary, inscribed with the Hebrew characters that translated to “Rebecca.” “This may take awhile,” he called out.
“I will wait.”
Reaching out with both hands, Barton firmly clasped the sides of the flat stone lid. He glanced over at Razak. The Muslim still had his back to him. Drawing a deep breath, Barton jostled it loose, pulling it away.
Two hours after he opened the first ossuary, Graham Barton was just replacing the skeletal remains that he had taken out of the seventh ossuary. Much like the specimens he had found in the preceding six burial boxes, this one was remarkably well preserved.
Though forensic anthropology wasn’t his specialty, he had studied enough bones in his time to understand the fundamentals. Certainly, the names on each ossuary eliminated much of the speculation concerning gender, but clues present on the skull sutures, joints, and pelvic bones led him to certain conclusions regarding the age of these skeletons. The four younger females—the daughters, he guessed—deceased very young, ranging in age between late teens and early twenties. The three younger males—by the same logic, the sons—also seemed to fall into the same range. Typical of families during the first century, the children were numerous and born in rapid succession to ensure family survival.