After wrapping up matters related to the Guatemalan mining operations, Liang En and his team boarded a plane back to Ireland to prepare for a series of upcoming academic exchanges.
He understood that important economic matters were best left to professionals like Elizabeth, who could be fully trusted, rather than allowing an outsider like himself to interfere recklessly.
For most people, it’s difficult to confirm whether professionals are truly loyal, often leading to actions being stalled due to endless deliberations.
However, this issue didn’t exist for Liang En. After all, if his historical followers weren’t trustworthy, then there would be no one trustworthy in this world.
After several years, the papers Liang En had previously submitted were gradually being accepted by the academic community. Therefore, he needed to participate in a series of exchange activities during this period.
If he had been a white person, he might have received widespread recognition a year earlier, but due to racial issues, he was subtly discriminated against.
Especially because the artifacts and historical relics he discovered were so significant to the history of Western civilization, some people were inherently repelled by the idea that a non-white person had found these things.
However, the academic documents he presented were so solid, and with the support of the Golden Dawn and Mr. Duris, even those who were reluctant had no choice but to acknowledge his work.
Yet, while they acknowledged his contributions, they made the process of formal recognition extremely complex, resulting in a delay before Liang En received public acknowledgment and acceptance.
This is a characteristic of the humanities and social sciences; unlike the hard sciences, where knowledge is more straightforward, recognition in these fields often requires peer validation.
In other words, when it comes to historical conjectures or ancient language translations, scholars have ample reason to challenge others’ interpretations. Moreover, verifying the accuracy of such work often takes considerable time.
Therefore, compared to the hard sciences, research in the humanities and social sciences may have lower experimental costs, but its overall complexity is not inferior and may even be more challenging.
More importantly, subjective factors play a larger role in this type of research, making prolonged debates on a single issue quite common.
Fortunately, Liang En's achievements were not limited to academia; a significant portion of his success also came from archaeology. Compared to the often ambiguous academic questions, the situation in archaeology was easier to clarify.
After all, the relics were there, and although there might be debates about their specific details, few people questioned the importance of these relics.
So, in the upcoming exchanges, Liang En focused on sharing knowledge in archaeology, where there was little controversy, and only engaged in discussions on history and ancient languages when prompted by others.
These exchanges were comprehensive, involving not only interactions with students but also academic discussions with professors and scholars, where they shared the latest knowledge in their fields.
Through these exchanges, Liang En learned that the dictionaries he had compiled for translating ancient languages had greatly advanced the understanding of historical records from ancient Egypt and the pre-dark ages of ancient Greece, particularly in Egyptian studies.
This was primarily because the ancient Egyptians liked to inscribe or carve their texts in various places. For example, when entering any temple, one could see entire walls covered in carved texts.
Previously, because no one understood these texts, they were no different from decorative murals on the walls to archaeologists.
This is why there was such a jubilant reaction among Egyptologists when Liang En deciphered the ancient Egyptian script, as the translation of these languages represented a key to unlocking the secrets of ancient Egypt.
As a result, over the past two years, the number of researchers traveling to Egypt almost equaled the total from the previous half-century, as this area represented a new frontier where even casual research could yield significant results.
This was indeed the case. Over the past two years, every issue of magazines related to archaeology and history featured research reports or papers on ancient Egypt, each of significant value.
After all, those who understood written language in ancient Egypt were not ordinary people, so the information they recorded was certainly not trivial like the junk information flooding the internet today.
Thus, the information obtained from texts recorded on papyrus or the walls of significant buildings was undoubtedly the most crucial information that the writers intended to document.
For instance, during this period, people had deciphered texts that revealed various aspects of religion, economy, politics, and culture from the ancient Egyptian era, solving many previously unresolved mysteries.
Moreover, because some texts were deciphered, people discovered previously unknown relics, such as ancient fortresses located in the waterfall regions of the upper Nile River.
This was the subject Liang En chose for his lecture at the University of Paris I, as the university had recently focused its attention on this area of research, discovering a wealth of information through these relics and conducting on-site investigations.
According to the findings, the relics were located near the second waterfall along the Nile River and consisted of a group of fortresses. Besides their common defensive functions, they also played a key role in the economic and cultural exchanges between Egypt and Nubia.
Nubia was an ancient civilization born in the Nile River Valley, and Egypt’s greatest competitor in that region. Being competitors, conflict was inevitable.
These southern Nile fortresses epitomize the era's interactions and frictions between these two civilizations.
During the Old Kingdom, the fortresses of Elephantine and Buhen served as Egypt’s initial bases for confronting Nubia. After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians' awareness and defense against foreign threats rapidly increased.
Although recently deciphered inscriptions boasted of ancient Egypt's power and contempt for its enemies, the deployment of many troops and supplies during the Middle Kingdom indicated that their enemies were not as weak as they claimed.
In this context, a series of defensive fortresses were established. Names like Youonati—designed to suppress Nubia, East Semna—to defend against archers, and Safak—to strike foreign enemies, clearly illustrate their defensive vigilance against outsiders.
"—From this, we can see the situation at that time." Standing in front of the blackboard, Liang En pointed to a photo, explaining, "This was discovered in front of a temple, and it contains a proclamation by a Pharaoh.
"If translated, this stele reads: 'I have pushed my borders southward, beyond what my father achieved... I am a man of my word... Any son of mine will ensure the borders established by his monarch...
My true son will uphold his father's work, defending the borders his father established. If he abandons these borders and fails, then he is not my son, nor am I his father by birth.'"
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