The Scarab Ring Mystery.
It was just over a year ago today when I made a discovery
that would change more than just my life.
I was in Gordon Square Garden – a peaceful gated green space
surrounded with mature chestnut trees, in the west end of London, waiting for
the Bloomsbury Theatre to open so I could start my shift working in the box
office. I sat down on a bench bathed in
the late afternoon sunshine and almost straight away something shinny caught my
eye next to the bench. When I looked
down I could see it was an Egyptian scarab ring. I looked round for a possible owner but the green
was empty apart from myself and some pigeons feasting on a half-eaten panini
nearby. The scarab which was 1cm wide, made of a lovely blue stone and set on a
disc of gold with a scattering of small diamond chips set into it and this was mounted
on to a thick band of gold – the hall mark showed it was 18k gold and there was
an inscription on the inside of the band which read ‘My forever Nefertiti’.
I didn’t know where the nearest police station was, and as
it was a Sunday afternoon the nearby university buildings were all closed. How
would I find the owner? A romantic notion
occurred to me – I decided to leave a note fixed to the bench. In my satchel I
had; a roll of sticky tape that I used to wrap a friends present the previous
day; an old faded shop till receipt; and a pen which was still working
luckily. Maybe if I left the note and
prayed for the rain to stay away the owner would return and contact me. I placed the ring securely in my wallet and
wrote ‘Nefertiti I found your ring - come to the Bloomsbury Theatre Box office
and ask for Mike’. I then taped this to the back of the bench and left the
green to start my shift.
Later that evening after clocking out and since no one had
asked for me, I returned to the green but of course I forgot the gate was
locked at 7pm every night. I couldn’t
get in. I’ll come back tomorrow’ I
thought. ‘I have a free day so I’ll browse in Foyles bookshop nearby in Charing
Cross Road’.
The next day started off wet – there had been a scattering
of rain in the night and I was worried that my note would be waterlogged.
Before setting off I grabbed a small note pad, pen and poly pocket (the kind
you put A4 sized paper documents in with hole punches for ring binder folders).
By the time I got to the green it was late morning– after
battling through the summer holiday hoards on the underground, tourists with
rucksacks jammed into your face as you struggle to get out at your stop and
gloomy looking business people glued to social media on their phone. I emerged into the smoggy sunshine coming out
of Goodge Street station on Tottenham Court Road. The puddles were starting to dry up thankfully
and I hurried up to Gordon Square again.
The green was much busier than before, the elderly gent with
his morning paper sat on a bench at the far end, a dog walker scooping up
little ‘presents’ her dog left behind, and a group of students (I guessed they were anyhow!) engaged in a
heated discussion about the merits of a University education in today’s
society. When I got to the bench at the
far side there was no note or even any remnants or bits of sticky tape. Ok this time I’ll put it in the pocket and tape
it down with lots and lots of tape and mark ‘For Nefertiti only’. So that’s what I did. I wrote ‘Nefertiti I
found your ring - email me’ I added my email address (but not a telephone
number as I didn’t want to get calls from crazy people in the middle of the
night). As I left the park I asked the old man if he had seen anyone take a
note off the bench that morning but he hadn’t.
Nothing left to do but go off to Foyles.
After an interesting morning reading up about Egyptology in
the bookstore I found out that there was a museum dedicated to Ancient Egypt
nearby in the grounds of University College London, called the Petrie Museum of
Egyptian Archaeology. Perhaps the owner
of the ring visited the museum that day. It’s worth investigating I
thought! I found the entrance to the
museum after googling the address– it was an understated entrance one could
easily have missed it. It’s not apparent from the outside that thousands of
years of history are kept within. I climbed up the dusty stairs –I peered into
the museum with dimmed lights and a slight musty smell. There were cabinets and glass cases crammed
with pots and other artefacts, and on the walls too were beaded necklaces and
amulets. It astonished me to discover how many different kinds of clay pot
there were and how the style of pot was the clue to its’ date. I found a kindly old silver haired gentleman
sitting quietly next to a rack of books about Egypt and a cash tin with the key
still in the lock. He looked above the
rim of his glasses at me “can I help you sir?”
I explained about the ring, where I found it and about the note, and
asked him if he knew anything about it or who the owner might be. The answer was negative, unfortunately he
couldn’t tell me. Just then a young attractive
woman popped out from behind a cabinet; she had been eavesdropping; “I can tell
you about the ring”. My heart jumped in excitement as I thought the ring was
hers. It wasn’t though.
“The beetle is made of lapis lazuli a semi-precious stone
and is highly symbolic. In Egyptian art the scarab is the depiction of the god
Khepri; the god of creation and renewal.
Khepri renewed the sun every day, rolled it above the horizon then
carried it through the other world after sunset only to repeat the process the
next day and so on. Just as the dung
beetle pushes its dung ball. Not so romantic in this day and age eh?” She
chuckled. “The sun disc or ‘Aten’ was
the symbol of the sun god Re and Nefertiti was the queen of the so called
heretic King Akhenaten. He forsook all
other Egyptian gods to worship just Re. Nefertiti is my favourite queen of them
all. She was a beautiful woman and whoever’s ring it is must also have been
perceived as beautiful by the person who gave the ring. The inscription also
says ‘forever’ referring to the Egyptians belief of the continual renewal of
the sun. Of course they didn’t use
diamonds in their jewellery. But I would suppose the diamonds represent stars.
The ring is not a reproduction of any ancient artefact that I know of
though.”
“That’s really fascinating” I said. “Although it won’t help me to find the owner
sadly. I’ll have to check my emails and
visit the bench each day”
“Would you like me to keep an eye on the bench to save you
making a journey every day, although you are welcome to pop in to the museum if
you’re passing at any time” she replied.
“That’s so kind of you, OK let me give you my email address
and we can keep in touch. By the way my
name is Richard”
“Lovely to meet you Richard” she said shaking my hand. “I’m
Laurie, the Museum Curator here”.
After leaving the museum I popped back to the bench – my
note was still there this time so I returned home by tube thinking “I hope I
see Laurie again”.
Over the next two weeks I heard from Laurie everyday about
the progress of my note. Yes it was still there or if it wasn’t she would
rewrite the note and stick it down again.
Eventually I had to resign myself to the fact that the owner wasn’t
coming back. Laurie had put up a note in
the museum and contacted the Egypt Exploration Society in case the owner was a
member. Over the weeks and months
gradually Laurie and I got to know and become fond of each other. I would visit the museum when I could and
we’d have coffee at the University Union coffee shop at least once a week – or when
I had an evening shift at the theatre.
Till we realised after a short time that we had fallen in love. We then planned to get married.
The wedding was a very small occasion with close friends and
family at Laurie’s local registry office in Islington. We still had the scarab ring so thought it
would be fitting for Laurie to wear it for the day. Afterwards we took taxi’s to the Petrie
museum to have a finger buffet reception.
All our friends wished us well and everyone was fascinated by the ring
and how it had brought us together. One of Laurie’s colleague wrote an article
and posted pictures on the Museum Webpage about the ring and its part in our
romance.
It was about six months later that Laurie received an email
from a lady called Amelie it said “I’m Nefertiti”. She attached a photo of herself – where the ring was clearly shown on her hand-
her arms were crossed like those of a mummy. We were thrilled the owner had
been found. She lived in Somerset but
was planning a trip to London and wanted to check the museum website for
upcoming events. Which is when she
discovered the article about her ring. Not long after that we arranged to meet
up at the Union coffee shop as she wanted to visit the Petrie Museum as well.
Laurie and I anxiously waited at a table for Amelie.
Thankfully the room wasn’t too busy for a Monday morning. Amelie appeared at
the door waving enthusiastically. After passing
the ring to her, her eyes welled up and she immediately put the ring on.
“I’m not ever taking it off again.” She said
After ordering three coffees she explained how the ring had
been lost;
“A bee stung me on my finger and it started to swell up so I
took off the ring and left it on the edge of the bench whilst I searched
through my bag for hand sanitiser. I
obviously forgot about it being worried about the sting. I had planned to visit the Petrie Museum but
had to abandon the idea. It wasn’t till later that I discovered it was missing.
I retraced my steps the next day and the park was the first place I
visited. I didn’t see a note on the
bench. I had given it up for lost.”
“Wow”, I said. “If
you had found the note on the same day you lost it I would never have come to
the Petrie Museum and met Laurie. I am
glad though that I can now return the ring to you. But who is the person who
wrote the inscription?”
“That’s my dad” she said “He loved reading about ancient
Egypt and commissioned this ring for my 18th birthday. He used to
call me Nefertiti referring to the meaning ‘The beautiful one has come’. He nicknamed me that on the day of my birth
but my mum wouldn’t let me be called that legally. That’s all a long time ago now.
Sadly he passed away 4 years ago so getting back the ring means so much to
me. He would have loved the fact that
the ring brought the two of you together and especially as you are an
Egyptologist Laurie. I like reading about Egypt and reading evokes my memories
of him.”
After we finished our coffees we toured the Petrie Museum together
and soon it was time for Amelie to catch her train. We knew that we would be friends forever…
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