The Most Forbidden

Only a few weeks after Halloween in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. After sweeping away the sands of the Middle Eastern desert, a cover-stone with hieroglyphics was waiting at the entrance of the mummy’s burial chamber. A translation of the inscription foretold that any who broke the seal and entered the tomb would fall under the powers of a supernatural curse. A few weeks later, Sir Bruce Ingham died in a fire after Howard Carter gave him a mummy’s hand to use as a paperweight on his desk. Eight others associated with Middle Eastern archeological effort also died from touching articles of The Most Forbidden.

During two Gulf Wars, military forces from several nations invaded Iraq. After the invasions, thousands of antiquities from ancient Mesopotamia went missing. Many of the modern day grave robbers gave up the ghosts, the ancient relics came back to the museums, but some of the most mysterious and priceless artifacts that were lost during the effort to oust Saddam Hussein and his butchers of Baghdad are still circulating among illicit collectors.

Many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, Nebuchadnezzar was the King of Mesopotamia and the city of Babylon. He was a very powerful and prideful monarch and a prolific builder of monuments and tributes to his kingdom. One of the most famous of Nebuchadnezzar’s accomplishments was the building of the Ishtar Gate, which would later become the eighth entrance to the city of modern day Baghdad.

When the cornerstone of the Ishtar Gate became the foundation of the monument to the goddesses Ishtar and her legion of dragons, Nebuchadnezzar boasted that he “laid the foundation of the gate on “the breast” of the netherworld.” After building the Gate of Ishtar and rising to the pinnacle of his prideful power, Nebuchadnezzar fell—very badly—from the grace of God and became an insane and ravaging beast for seven years.

Shortly before 1914, and the outbreak of World War I, a team of German archaeologists completed the excavation of the Ishtar Gate. The scientists from Germany had been searching Baghdad for relics of the Nebuchadnezzar Empire and were particularly interested in the era when the Babylonian King sacked Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was once resting. After the Germans finished the Ishtar dig, several important sculptures of remarkably finished blue porcelain became treasures in the museums of Berlin and Bagdad…until two different wars scattered Nebuchadnezzar’s “foundation to the netherworld…”

Many years later, Chad was living on a tropical island, and although he was terribly wealthy, he was extremely bored. He made most of his money at a young age and did not fret over how many families he wrecked with his ruthless business decisions. He slept like a baby, but even with all of his prideful accomplishments, he often woke up restless.

To relieve the boredom in his huge waterfront house on the island in southwest Florida, Chad searched for rare acquisitions. His estate was huge and although he did not have many friends he could trust, he did like to impress any newcomers that he might invite into his tropical mansion.

Because money was not a problem, Chad was relentless in his pursuit of very expensive antiquities that had provenance. Without a provenance and a proven and factual history to share and to brag about, antiques were just junk and nothing more. Because Chad was very particular with his trophies that he stashed in his secret office, he was only interested in the “Wow Factor” of his secretly acquired treasures. Controversial treasure for Chad was the best. In his collection was the hatchet that Lizzie Borden used to murder and dismember her father and stepmother in 1892. He also had proof that he had the pistol that was used to assassinate Abe Lincoln. Among his many terrible treasures, the oldest were his favorites and were easily the most impressive.

Because Chad was relentless in searching the dark web for controversial antiquities, and because he enjoyed searching for the creepiest pieces with the darkest history, he soon became obsessed with an ancient Iraqi artifact that was over 2,600 years old. He now had proof the little blue dragon of Ishtar went missing from the German Academy of Archeology during World War II, before resurfacing again at the Mesopotamian museum in Baghdad before the second Gulf War.

The provenance and the controversy surrounding the Iraqi dragon were fascinating. Chad had the lab report confirming the glazed figurine with the fangs and the claws was indeed carbon-dated to over 2,600 years old, but the surface of the blue porcelain was a scientific mystery. Apparently, the blue glaze on the dragon was almost indestructible and made with the heat from a fire that was not possible at the time of ancient Babylonia.

When the wire transfer was complete and the special couriers came to deliver Nebuchadnezzar’s Ishtar dragon, Chad was shocked when he first held the spooky figurine in his hands. It was in perfect condition. The blue glaze was flawless and seemed to shine even in darkness.

After pouring over the provenance documents and the history regarding the most recent buyers of The Most Forbidden, Chad broke out in a cold sweat. Every past owner of Nebuchadnezzar’s dragon had gone missing for seven years immediately after the initial purchase of the illicit antiquity.

When Chad looked over with selfish pride and saw the ancient dragon gleaming in the glow from the lamp on his desk, he also saw that his fingernails were turning into claws. His teeth felt like they were somehow growing, and his skin was quickly turning into the scales of a crocodile that once haunted the banks of the Tigris River near Bagdad.

Happy Halloween season Marco, Goodland, Isles of Capri, South Naples, and Everglades City!