Event period: 10 July 2016

  A corpse has appeared! I can’t believe it, but a corpse has appeared! We have a perfectly preserved ancient human being inside the sphere. At first, I wasn’t sure about it because it was wrapped in a kind of shroud, but as soon as I felt around and opened the fabric a bit, there it was. I would like to send you photos, but I think I’m going to wait (this way I can make sure that at least one person reads the paper I’m going to do on the subject), however, if you want a comparison, the body is in a very similar state to ?tzi’s mummy[1], except that it has a browner colour because of the peaty earth that surrounds it.

  The posture in which the mummy appeared is particular. It was neither in a foetal position nor lying down, as would be usual. Instead, it was completely stretched out, with its hands clasped and facing the plates. It looked, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest, as if he was trying to get out of the sphere, clawing it with his bare hands. In fact, some plates near his hands have marks and indentations made insistently with something sharp (my guess is fingernails).

  This scene, with all I know so far, leads me to suppose that I am in front some kind of punishment or torture. Do you know the Bull of Phalaris[2]? Well, something similar, but instead of locking you up and simmering you, they leave you to drown when the tide comes in. If this hypothesis is true, I think it would be a very complicated and inefficient method, not only because it is slow to torture or execute someone but also because it would be much more appropriate if the sphere was made of bars through which the water could enter more easily, and not with metal sheets that are more impermeable and difficult to manufacture, join and maintain.

  Anyway, for the moment I am going to leave the mummy untouched, because with such a find I don’t want to alter anything, especially if what I have found is an ancient human being in such an excellent state of conservation. I will cover everything the best I can, and I won’t touch anything else. This illegal excavation of mine ends here and will have to wait for a serious project.

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  I will take, however, part of the shroud, a sample of skin from the body and maybe some of the small bones that are scattered around the corpse (which I suppose belong to a joint). Don’t worry, I’ll keep them in the water and soil in which I found them to prevent degradation[3] and then we’ll see what we can do. I’d like to send it directly to Rut, but I think the wisest thing to do would be to wait a while so that she doesn’t tie up the loose ends and ask me what I’m doing.

  At some point, I would like to get funding or support for a formal excavation project, but things are complicated: if a project in terrestrial archaeology already has to struggle a lot to get funding, I can’t even imagine what it must cost for a project of underwater archaeology. I don’t hold out much faith, but hopefully this evidence will be of some use when the time comes. I can always say that they were things that “the locals found and couldn’t identify at the time”. It’s a lie as big as a cathedral, but if it gets the wheels in motion..., then it will be worth it.

  [1] A human being from over 5,000 years ago (dated 3,255 B.C.) who died during a journey through the ?tztal Alps. His body was frozen, and the low temperatures helped to ensure that it has survived to the present day in an excellent state of preservation. We consider it the oldest natural human mummy in Europe.

  [2] A method of torture where the prisoner was enclosed in a metal statue, usually bronze, in the shape of a bull. The statue was then placed over the fire, causing the heat of the heated metal to burn the prisoner to death whose screams echoed from within, resembling the mooing of the depicted animal.

  [3] Archaeological remains that appear in very specific environments, especially submerged ones, need to maintain identical or similar conditions in order to preserve them in good condition. Otherwise, they degrade rapidly. This is because, after being kept in these stable conditions for so long, the pieces are acclimatised, and sudden changes are disastrous.