The Dig

[Archaeological Site 1345, Kyushu, Japan. Late Spring 2019]

*SLAP*

Alex looked at the squashed bloody remains of the mosquito on his exposed forearm before brushing it off his skin.

The humid summer, filled with attacking mosquitoes and midgets, threw some of the archaeology students into an uncoordinated dance of swatting and scratching, amidst the strings and sticks which laid out the quadrants of the dig.

Their Japanese counterpart from the Japanese university was showering sprits of the insect repellent over herself and others who asked.

Far from civilisation, he glanced at the large clearing, surrounded by a primeval forest with a broken asphalt dead-end road and the four of the university's minivans parked along at the side.

Their Australian university selected Terry, Takeshi and he for the archaeological academic exchange with the university in Kyushu when they won a research essay competition focused on the links between the Japanese supernatural lore, anthropology and archaeological evidence.

"Fucking mozzies," Alex grumbled.

Takeshi chuckled. "Welcome to a Japanese summer. Nothing like anime, eh?"

Alex stopped for a moment to scratch another growing welt on his arm while Takeshi, in the next quadrant, gestured at the two elderly Japanese farmers leaning against their small dirt covered truck. They must have arrived a few minutes ago.

Alex glanced at them in curiosity. They had been present for the week, keeping an eagle's eye on them.

"Them again, any clue why they have been staring us down for a week?" Alex asked Takeshi.

Takeshi shrugged and said, "Rural folk, superstitious and bored - nothing that you already don't know."

"Didn't Professor Fujita and all the Japanese classmates, including you, hold a meeting with them last fortnight? What did they say?"

"Ask Professor Fujita." Takeshi directed his attention at the tent where the professor was busy discussing a find, which resembled a dusty rock, in his hand with another classmate.

"Come on, what am I going to say? It's like the Japanese students left us foreign students out of the loop. Except for you, but you are Japanese."

Takeshi bit his lip and shook his head mildly, while considering whether to let Alex know more. The old folks in the rural areas are too superstitious for his liking. Even cutting down one tree involved a Shinto ritual. They were also particular about 'outsiders'.

He racked his brain on a more diplomatic approach to explain the fiasco to Alex without sounding offensive.

To the locals, the Japanese from other prefectures, like Takeshi, are outsiders. While the Japanese students readily accepted Takeshi, it was difficult for Alex and the international students of non-Japanese descent.

However, Alex had one thing going for him - a mixed European and Asian descent in their postgraduate class. Alex's unusual but good-looking facial features could pass him off as half Japanese, even though he is half-Chinese.

Looking half Japanese was better than not looking like a Japanese at all. Certain circles accepted Alex on that basis at the behest of Takeshi. The non-Japanese students complained of complete isolation from the Japanese group, who felt that it was unnecessary and too difficult to explain the culture to them.

"Well?"

Rolling his eyes, Takeshi replied in a soft whisper, "they told me that disturbing ancient sacred ground is bad news. Something about misfortune falling on those who meddle in this location since the old snake gods sealed spirits here."

"So, why are they watching us? Don't they have to work on their farm?"

"Beats me." Takeshi shrugged.

No one had built anything on this site, which piqued Alex's curiosity. Farms a few kilometres apart lined the countryside until this place.

According to the locals, no one dared to go further than the last farm seen. Generations before them have passed down the instructions never to build on the ground. To them, accursed snake spirits, which could spread a strange disease, lived in the area, but to Alex, it was an utter hogwash of the uneducated.

Those ancestral instructions didn't include ground disturbance, as the prefectural officer noted when the locals protested until he presented the more palatable prospect of economy and renewed interest in a targeted area, where rapid depopulation was taking place.

The university had to negotiate with the elderly locals, firm in their beliefs. Some recounted folklore, boogeyman and ghost stories passed down through generations, or the more common origin - friends of a friend of a family friend who heard it from some relatives.

After several negotiations and assurances from both government and university, followed by the Shinto rituals, the once large grassy area turned into a bare, orange-brownish dig site with strings and sticks to create quadrants for the excavation.

Alex had to attend the ritual ground breaking ceremony as part of the research team involved in the dig. Those who didn't attend had to pull out. He recalled that day when the twenty nearby locals turned up and their mannerism made him feel like a zoo exhibit, despite few polite words exchanged.

"Anyway, I went to look up the history of this area. They mentioned something about this being a potential site of the Yamatai Kingdom," Alex added to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Queen Himiko's Kingdom. Haha. Bet you that Nara and Northern Kyushu are fighting to be the site of the legendary Shaman Queen. It's potential tourism money - especially from the domestic side," Takeshi laughed.

"Yeah. You know the expert from Kyoto whom I contacted was insisting on it being Nara," Alex whispered. "And the other from Miyazaki insisted on Kyushu."

"And who knew that the actual discoverers of this site are a group of forestry students running after a bunch of monkeys," Takeshi snorted as he stifled a laugh.

"So that's how Fujita found this site?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Yup, the professor from the forestry department told him about his students and the strange site they have found with strange markings. So Fujita came here and looked around. So here we are… on the blazing trail of backing up Kyushu's potential claim to fame of being Himiko's Kingdom."

Alex nudged him and said, "Always friends of a friend of a friend, eh?"

"Connections matter in Japan. Nobody tells you shit if they don't know you well," Takeshi replied as he glanced ahead towards other students busy studying a rock on the ground.

Centuries of heavy downpours washed away the sediment, revealing strange inscriptions on the ancient rock, which brought on the interest of the prefectural government who in turned funded Professor Fujita's research.

"I wonder what site this was. No human remains or animal bones. It looks too clean to be a burial site. Not even much pottery to go on, or grains to suggest a settlement."

Alex wondered, as his fingernails tore at the itching welt for relief. Once satisfied, he picked his trowel up to continue the painstaking work of scraping a centimetre of orange-brownish dirt off his assigned quadrant. A tin bucket by his side was already half filled with soil and dirt for sifting.

"Ah, what is the Fu-Tales theory?" Takeshi asked in half jest, mixed with sarcasm. Fu-Tales is Alex's surname.

Alex's eyes turned to the large brush, and a scribbled notepad with a pencil laid discarded at the side.

"Well, frankly, I am stumped. It could be a worship site of sorts, a precursor to current day Shinto where blood and guts are ritually unclean," he said and asked, "What is the Matsudaira theory?"

"I don't need a theory, considering my surname belongs to a daimyō clan," Takeshi winked at the wise ass remark using his surname and lifted his finger to the lips.

Alex rolled his eyes at Takeshi.

"HEY, I FOUND SOMETHING! ANOTHER ROCK WITH INSCRIPTIONS!" One of their classmates waved excitedly, distracting both Takeshi and Alex, who stood up together, hitting their heads together.

A slip of the foot caused Alex fell on the ground as his hand instinctively moved to break his fall.

"OUCH," Alex winced as his hand fell on the trowel.

"Oh shit, man..." Takeshi stared.

"CHOTTO MATTE KUDASAI!" One farmer yelled to stop them as he raced towards the duo.

The commotion drew the professor and his team in their direction while the farmer pulled the towel around his neck.

After wrapping the towel tightly around Alex's hand to stop the bleeding, the elderly Japanese man clasps his cheek and gawked with a look of horror at the ground where blood spilled.

"YABAI… kegare…," the flustered elderly man exclaimed while flailing his arms in exaggerated excitement, while a frowning Professor Fujita step cautiously ahead.

Takeshi knew it meant something bad happened, and kegare was a reference to pollution or desecration of a divine space.

Then Fujita's eyes moved to the bloody spot and his face drained of colour while Alex yelped from the stinging pain in his palm. Incident reports would have to be filled and the local Shinto priest had to perform purification of the bloodied ground.

"Call the local shrine. We need the priest out here ASAP. If he asks, just tell him that blood is on the site," Professor Fujita mentioned while glancing at the cardboard scrap which was pinned to a stick for quadrant identification.

Takeshi pulled his iPhone from the pocket of his khakis to make the call before the others reacted, while the farmer rambled off frantically in the local Japanese dialect to his approaching companion while gesturing wildly at the bloodied spot.

"Isn't that… another inscription?" Terry, another Australian classmate, said hesitantly.

All of their eyes moved towards the tilt of Terry's head. Alex's blood revealed an indentation of carved scripts on the ground which wasn't seen earlier.