After Ethan got home, he realized it was already past four o'clock in London, and the sky had completely darkened. Arriving home, Ethan felt a sense of emptiness and fatigue.
Today's experiences were simply unbelievable.
After tidying up the kitchen, Ethan realized his roommate hadn't come back yet.
Ethan's roommate is a hardworking young man who goes out to work every day and usually comes back very late. This lifestyle gave Ethan enough private time to study the scroll and deal with his own affairs.
After hiding the tattered clothes, Ethan randomly picked up a new piece of clothing and turned on the computer.
Ethan decided to search online for information on similar symptoms or scrolls. He tried using image recognition for his search, but he didn't directly photograph the scroll. Instead, he laid the scroll flat on the table.
He planned to trace a few of the smaller symbols from the scroll onto paper, then take a photo of the paper, ensuring a foolproof method.
It wasn't completely safe now, but at least there were no disturbances. This time, Ethan observed the texture of the scroll more carefully. The material of the scroll was very ancient, with a strange and cold texture, seemingly not belonging to this world. Every touch gave him an indescribable sense of unease.
Ethan carefully traced a few symbols from the edge, and after comparing them several times to ensure they were exactly alike, he tried searching with Google Images.
However, the results were very disappointing to Ethan. These symbols didn't seem to match any known text versions.
But Ethan also discovered a website where various linguists or semioticians shared discussion posts. The site looked professional, and more importantly, it seemed to offer experts who could help identify symbols for free.
He casually contacted an expert in ancient symbols, hoping for some guidance.
"This symbol seems to be a unique pictograph. The amount you've given me is too little to decipher. Do you have more versions?" The expert quickly replied.
This made Ethan a bit troubled, but after hesitating for a moment, he traced a few more symbols and sent them to the expert.
After waiting for a while, the expert finally replied: "I find your symbols very interesting. They conform to certain ancient human writing habits, but they also have different characteristics, showing a strong individual style rather than a collective script. We speculate this might be a cipher used by a particular person or a very small group."
"But what's certain is that without a translation, these symbols are almost impossible to decipher." The expert added another disappointing conclusion.
"Ah, is it that difficult? I remember in Sherlock Holmes, there was 'The Adventure of the Dancing Men,' and they successfully deciphered that…" Ethan, still hopeful, asked.
"Cryptography and semiotics indeed have a lot in common, but the 'Dancing Men' example you mentioned was deciphered based on a specific context and ample reference literature. Moreover, while the Sherlock Holmes cases are educational, they are, after all, fictional scenarios. In reality, without sufficient documentary support and contextual background, interpreting a few isolated symbols is very challenging."
"Then I remember many lost scripts were eventually deciphered? Like… ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs?" Ethan, undaunted, applied the knowledge he had just learned from his online search.
The expert patiently explained: "The key to the successful decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. This stone featured the same content in three different scripts, crucially including known ancient Greek, which provided direct clues for decipherment. Without a similar 'key' for your symbols, accurate interpretation is indeed difficult with current technology and the existing knowledge system."
"However," the expert's tone slightly softened, "this doesn't mean there's no hope at all. Sometimes, through in-depth analysis of the symbols' shapes and combination patterns, it might be possible to conjecture some meanings. I suggest comparing these symbols with known ancient pictographic scripts to see if there are similar structures or repeating patterns. Additionally, such symbols usually have their internal logic and rules; finding this pattern might lead to a breakthrough."
"If you're willing, I can help you contact some colleagues in the field to see if anyone has studied this type of symbol. Of course, this will take some time and patience," the expert offered in the end.
Ethan, though still somewhat disappointed, understood the expert's point. He gratefully responded: "Thank you very much for your advice and help. I'll give it a try. If there's any progress, I'll contact you again."
After hanging up, Ethan took a deep breath, knowing he had a long way ahead, but at least now, he had a direction to start.
He decided to begin with the internet and libraries, collecting as much information on ancient pictographic scripts as possible, hoping to find the key to unlocking the secrets of the scroll among this vast information.