Early the next morning, Leonard took these items to Pierce's shop. Because for him, after completing the experiment, the things he bought from the antique store yesterday were useless, so he wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible, even if it meant cutting their prices in half.
"Lawrence, you're here. I was just about to give you a call." As he walked into the shop, a smile appeared on Pierce's face, who was holding a mobile phone.
"What's up?" After placing his backpack full of items on the counter, Leonard asked curiously, "Is it because you sold that Hummingbird Pistol and want to give the money back quickly?"
"No, of course not," Pierce shook his head, "but I've already made contact with a private auction event for a nobleman. If all goes well, the gun should be sold in a week."
"A noble's private auction, what is that?"
"It's a gathering of wealthy, high-status people who use auctions as an excuse to socialize, like the hunting events or banquets they host," Pierce shrugged.
"So unlike regular auctions, at these events, the auction items must not only be rare but also have a story behind them. That's how they can attract the participants to generously bid."
"The process you found for the Hummingbird Pistol is exactly what they like, so I think it could sell for a good price."
"If it's a story, I might have something here that can increase the value of that gun," Leonard said, immediately taking out his phone.
"When I found the interlayer, I had a feeling that it might be my first big break since becoming a treasure hunter, so I took a few pictures as a souvenir — "
"This is absolutely fantastic, brother," As he looked at the photos Leonard took when he found the interlayer, Pierce's smile grew even brighter.
"You know, these photos alone can increase the expected auction price of the Hummingbird Pistol by 5%. For wealthy people, finding a treasure worth tens of thousands of Pounds in an old cabinet is a very appealing story."
Being exposed to the spending habits of the wealthy was an eye-opening experience for Leonard. Their consumption concepts were not very consistent with those of ordinary people, so mastering this knowledge was essential for doing business with them.
Over the next few minutes, Leonard sold off most of the items he bought yesterday to Pierce for 150 Pounds. However, when it came to the glass beads necklace, Pierce had his thoughts.
"If it's just a trade beads necklace, it would be just an ordinary antique. But with this bead from the Eastland, it becomes a symbol of the ancient Old World trade routes," Pierce carefully looked at the Warring States Dragonfly Eye bead with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Although the price won't be too high, its unique story should make it an auction item."
"Sounds great. So are you going to put it up for auction?"
"Yes, these story-driven items often sell for a decent price at auction. If you're not in a hurry for money, you can try putting it up for auction."
After considering for a while, Leonard decided to sell these items at auction. He wasn't in urgent need of money, so making a bit more would naturally be a good thing.
"By the way, do you have any plans for today?" After giving Leonard the receipt for the glass beads necklace and 150 Pounds in cash, Pierce suddenly asked.
"I don't have any specific plans, but recently when I was self-studying ancient languages, I found some interesting things, so I want to write a few papers to see if I can get them published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association."
This is an important path that Leonard Ethan found for his future development after obtaining the Golden Finger.
Compared to treasure hunters digging with shovels or metal detectors, scholars who can contribute to history and archaeology are more likely to obtain various resources, and at the same time, it is beneficial for him to make use of the effects of the Golden Finger.
When he activated his Golden Finger before, Jean-François Champollion's memory gave Leonard Ethan a huge gift.
Because of the differences between the two worlds, some important cultural relics were not discovered. Therefore, Jean-François Champollion in this world was just a famous pioneer of Eastern archaeology and did not engage in the study of ancient Egyptian history.
As a result, in this world, the study of ancient Egyptian texts has only advanced to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian numbers and the discovery of the cartouche by Thomas Yang, who conducted the Double-slit Interference Experiment.
Worse still, the current historical community's understanding of ancient Egyptian texts tends to favor the views found in Horapollo's book "Egyptian Hieroglyphs," written around 500 CE, about Egyptian hieroglyphs.
In the book, the author argues that in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the rabbit symbol means "to open" because the rabbit's eyes are always open. The vulture symbol means "mother" because all vultures are female.
Without a doubt, almost all of this content is nonsense, but the problem is that it has successfully led all subsequent researchers astray. As a result, no one can now translate the true content of those ancient Egyptian texts.
For the people in this world, ancient Egyptian texts are a dead language, and no one can decipher them. But now, Leonard Ethan from another world holds that key.
The first step in this regard is straightforward, which is to correct the common misconception that pictorial Egyptian texts are a purely logo-syllabic system.
So for the first paper, he just wants to demonstrate that ancient Egyptian texts can be used as letters to mark pronunciation by comparing the simple method of names in the cartouche of Ptolemaic Dynasty kings.
With this basis, he can recreate step by step the research process of Jean-François Champollion in his mind and finally decipher the ancient Egyptian text in this world.
"It's a pity that I wanted to invite you to drink at the pub, but it seems we'll have to wait until after the auction to celebrate." Pierce naturally doesn't know Leonard Ethan's plans, but he also knows that academic matters are far more important than drinking.
As soon as he returned to the rented house after speaking with Pierce, Leonard Ethan followed Jean-François Champollion's thought process using the ancient Egyptian texts for the names Ptolemy and Cleopatra as examples to speculate their spelling with specific symbols to spell out their pronunciation.
After proposing this view, he deduced the name Alexander according to the rules of his conjecture. Finally, using this method, he deduced the names of all known foreign Pharaohs in ancient Egyptian texts.
For Leonard Ethan, this work was not difficult, but it was very tedious.
Fortunately, he had just graduated two months ago, so his paper writing skills were at their peak, and in this Network Era, he could easily find all the information he needed.
So after three days of hard work, he finally finished writing the paper and sent it to the Journal of the British Archaeological Association by email.