Rickards stared at her as she continued.  “Many of humans’ earliest languages developed as a series of drawings or simplified pictograms, something that can be seen evolving over hundreds or thousands of years and gradually becoming more detailed and sophisticated—just like everything does, from language to agriculture, to cars and even computers.  Everything evolves over time in small, incremental steps.  But that doesn’t seem to have happened in Egypt.  Instead of an observable history where their culture and language steadily grew more advanced, their hieroglyphics seem to have appeared suddenly and with a level of complexity and structure many historians cannot explain.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes.  Even the earliest hieroglyphics were unusually stylized and conventional.  The same is true with their mathematics, medicine, astronomy and their architecture—the same understanding of architecture used to build the Great Pyramids.”

“How is that possible?”

“No one knows.  Most Egyptologists today tend to avoid the subject.”

“Why is that?”

“The same reason many others are ignored.  The implications.  How many revolutionary ideas have been ignored by the establishment throughout history?  Many of which ended up being right.  Magellan, Copernicus, Einstein.” She motioned to the sleeping Townsend.  “Even Dr. Townsend said it still happens all the time.  A lot of Egyptologists have built their careers on conventional theory, and convention doesn’t like radical ideas.”

“I thought you said leading Egyptologists were the ones who’d brought up the discrepancy.”

“Some.  Not all.  And when they did, it was often done in papers that pondered or asked questions about it, not necessarily claiming a new theory.  It’s a much safer way to examine it.  But yes, people like John Anthony West or Walter Emery have made multiple mentions of the lack of apparent history in Egypt.”

“So, what do they think happened?”

“They don’t know.  But they do offer some possibilities.  Such as the hypothetical third party.”

“Someone else was involved?”

“Possibly.  Egypt and Mesopotamia both appear to have some similarities, but not nearly enough to prove one came from the other.  Only a few cultural fragments, really.  Which means…”

“A third party?”

Angela nodded.  “But no one has any idea who that would be.  So, either there is a much older and sophisticated culture that existed before any records were kept, or Ancient Egypt suddenly sprang into existence some other way.”

“How else could it?”

She shook her head.  “I have no idea.  But you can see what got me past my fear of traveling—at least this time.”

“Excitement, I guess.”

“And the possibility that there could be a connection with Egypt and the spire we found in Bolivia.”

“You don’t think that’s tied to Egypt somehow missing a beginning?”

“No.  It’s just another incentive to go there.  The place truly is the land of mystery.”

“I suppose so,” acknowledged Rickards.  “But don’t get too excited.  Like I said, I’m not digging.”