Arthur stands before the British Muse­um in 1857, feel­ing small beneath the grandeur of its tow­er­ing columns and impres­sive archi­tec­ture. This icon­ic struc­ture, with its colos­sal pres­ence, seems almost to mock his mod­est back­ground and hum­ble begin­nings. How­ev­er, despite the ris­ing tide of self-doubt and anx­i­ety, Arthur is deter­mined to press for­ward, step­ping into the muse­um with a sense of pur­pose. As he enters, dis­guised as a stu­dent, his heart races with excite­ment and ner­vous­ness, eager to explore the exhibits that lie with­in. The oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn from such esteemed arti­facts fuels his desire for knowl­edge, even though he is unsure whether he tru­ly belongs in this world of priv­i­lege and pres­tige. His thoughts wan­der back to his pre­vi­ous inter­ac­tions with the Keep­er of Ori­en­tal Antiq­ui­ties, but the fear of mak­ing such a bold approach holds him back from con­nect­ing with this impor­tant fig­ure.

After a brief time spent with the group of vis­i­tors, Arthur’s curios­i­ty leads him to wan­der away, seek­ing out the famous lamas­sus from Nin­eveh, ancient stat­ues that have long cap­tured his imag­i­na­tion. These pow­er­ful sculp­tures, which rep­re­sent both mys­tery and his­to­ry, are a bea­con for Arthur, urg­ing him to con­nect with the ancient past. How­ev­er, just as he is lost in awe, a muse­um staff mem­ber, with a teas­ing tone, ques­tions his expec­ta­tions about the ancient arti­facts. The staff mem­ber jok­ing­ly won­ders whether the lamas­sus might have flown away, and the com­ment brings Arthur’s inse­cu­ri­ties to the sur­face. The teas­ing high­lights the class dif­fer­ences that Arthur feels, and he quick­ly retreats, over­whelmed by his per­ceived inad­e­qua­cy. Yet, this hasty escape only leads him fur­ther into the muse­um, where he acci­den­tal­ly stum­bles upon a hid­den stor­age room filled with ancient clay tablets inscribed with mys­te­ri­ous cuneiform writ­ing. This dis­cov­ery becomes the spark for his grow­ing fas­ci­na­tion with the his­to­ry con­tained in these tablets.

Arthur’s immer­sion in the world of cuneiform tablets fuels an insa­tiable curios­i­ty, draw­ing him deep­er into the study of Mesopotami­an his­to­ry. As he exam­ines the sym­bols and inscrip­tions, he feels a sense of con­nec­tion to the ancient cre­ators of these texts, but his per­son­al doubts con­tin­ue to linger. When he is dis­cov­ered by anoth­er muse­um staff mem­ber, Arthur’s dis­com­fort only grows, as his appear­ance and his hum­ble back­ground are a con­stant reminder of the class divi­sions that sep­a­rate him from those around him. His desire for knowl­edge is cloud­ed by a deep sense of inad­e­qua­cy, and he is con­stant­ly remind­ed of how dif­fer­ent he is from the oth­er schol­ars and staff in the muse­um. Despite these feel­ings, the allure of the tablets remains too strong to ignore. Arthur’s deep-seat­ed long­ing to uncov­er the mys­ter­ies of these ancient texts rep­re­sents both his intel­lec­tu­al curios­i­ty and his desire to escape from his own real­i­ties. His strug­gles with self-accep­tance and soci­etal bar­ri­ers con­tin­ue to shape his jour­ney, but he push­es on, deter­mined to make his mark.

Deter­mined not to let his self-doubt get in the way of his goals, Arthur makes it a point to return to the muse­um every day dur­ing his lunch break, eager to spend as much time as pos­si­ble study­ing the ancient tablets. His work sched­ule leaves lit­tle room for leisure, but the time he spends immersed in his­to­ry gives him pur­pose. Despite the exhaus­tion that comes with man­ag­ing his job and his new­found obses­sion with the tablets, Arthur finds solace in the pur­suit of knowl­edge. He is keen­ly aware of the muse­um staff’s grow­ing inter­est in his pres­ence, and their ini­tial curios­i­ty grad­u­al­ly shifts toward respect. At first, they view him as an out­sider, but his ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion for the arti­facts begin to shine through. The staff’s chang­ing per­cep­tion of him gives Arthur a small sense of val­i­da­tion, though the weight of his finan­cial and social strug­gles nev­er ful­ly dis­ap­pears.

Arthur’s per­sis­tence even­tu­al­ly catch­es the atten­tion of Dr. Samuel Birch, the Keep­er of Ori­en­tal Antiq­ui­ties, who is intrigued by Arthur’s knowl­edge of the cuneiform tablets. Dr. Birch, rec­og­niz­ing the boy’s poten­tial, offers him an oppor­tu­ni­ty to assist with orga­niz­ing the ancient arti­facts, a propo­si­tion that rep­re­sents both a life-chang­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty and a risk. Arthur is aston­ished by the offer, as it seems to open doors to a future he had only dreamed of. How­ev­er, the oppor­tu­ni­ty also presents a new set of chal­lenges. Arthur knows that bal­anc­ing this new respon­si­bil­i­ty with his exist­ing job will require ded­i­ca­tion and per­se­ver­ance, but he is eager to prove him­self. This moment rep­re­sents a turn­ing point for Arthur, one that brings hope for a brighter future. The knowl­edge he uncov­ers in the muse­um will not only change his life but also allow him to con­tribute to the preser­va­tion of his­to­ry.