‘WELL ANNA, WHAT'S YOUR CONCLUSION,’ asked Pat
‘I have no doubt it’s a mix between a herbarium and a pharmacopoeia, the illustrations were drawn from living or dried plants. As far as the texts go, they describe applications to human illnesses. In short it’s an Aztec compendium of plants and their medicinal use.’
‘Medicinal?’
‘Yes, a pharmacopoeia contains instructions for the identification of medicines derived from animals, minerals and in this case plants, of which there are hundreds in the codex, it's a truly remarkable document.’
Pat listened attentively.
‘For example there’s a remedy for constipation, another for what I believe is glaucoma, and there’s even one for long life.’
Pat was suddenly very attentive, his thoughts switched to Lifegen, his company at Sophia Antipolis, a science pole, situated in Provence between Nice and Cannes.
Lifegen was a scientific facility specialised in research into longevity and life extension, subjects dear to Pat’s heart.
She explained Aztec civilisation had been highly developed and even though ferrous metallurgy was unknown to them, their sophisticated system of medicine, based on plants and herbs, was extraordinarily advanced as witnessed by other surviving documents dating from before and immediately after the Conquest.
Anna recounted how the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, written in 1552 by Martin de la Cruz, a Christianised Aztec, was one of the best known texts. Friar Bernardino de Sahagun’s treatise on Aztec daily life also contained a book with a large section devoted to medicinal herbs.
In addition was the Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus composed by Francisco Hernandez de Toledo, a physician who in 1570 took part in the first scientific expedition to the New World, which undertook the study of its medicinal plants and animals, his work described more than 3,000 Mexican plants.
‘So you see all of these codices contained botanical descriptions of the plants in Mexico and how the Aztecs used them, and for what ailments,’ Anna concluded.
Pat nodded, it was if he already knew.
‘There’s one thing that’s puzzling me,’ Anna said.
‘Fire ahead Anna.’
‘How does all of this interest Lifegen?’
Pat looked a little uneasy, as though he was taking a decision.
‘This is strictly confidential Anna,’ he said softly. ‘You know Lifegen was founded as a research centre for gerontology, well it’s a little more than that. We have an objective, which we believe is realistic.’
She looked at him concentrating her thoughts, she knew Pat Kennedy well, he was no ordinary man and he was about to reveal something she suspected he had been hiding for some time.
‘We have called it the Gilgamesh Project.’
‘Gilgamesh? You mean the epic?’ asked Anna unbelievingly.
‘Yes,’ replied Pat a little crestfallen by her reaction.
*
Anna like any archaeologist was familiar with the Epic of Gilgamesh, considered to be the first work of literature in human history, an epic poem, which recounted the story of Gilgamesh, the Great King of Uruk, who reigned sometime between 3000 and 2500BC in his city-state near the Euphrates.
The epic was discovered inscribed in cuneiform on the fragments of clay tablets dating soon after that time, though the most complete version was found by Sir Austen Henry Layard, an English archaeologist, in 1849, written on 12 tablets excavated in the ruins of the library of the 7th-century BC Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, in Nineveh—the capital of his empire, near Mosul, the present day city in Iraq.
The epic tells how Gilgamesh was tormented by the fear of death after he realised that he, too, would die. He cries, ‘How can I rest, how can I be at peace? Despair is in my heart. What my brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead. Because I am afraid of death I will go as best I can to find Utnapishtim whom they call the Faraway, for he has entered the assembly of the gods.’
Gilgamesh sets out on a long journey to the underworld to find Utnapishtim and discover the secret of immortality, across the Land of Night and the Waters of Death. After many tumultuous adventures he arrives in the land of Dilmun, where he finally meets Utanapishtim, the sole survivor of the Great Flood and granted immortality by the gods.
Utanapishtim recounts the story of how he was warned by the god Ea of the coming deluge, and following his command built an ark for the animals and his family.
He then tells Gilgamesh eternal life will be granted if the Great King can stay awake for the next six days, but Gilgamesh falls asleep at once.
Utanapishtim has mercy on him and tells him of a wondrous plant that grows under the sea, like a flower with thorns, which would rejuvenate him. Gilgamesh finds the plant by binding stones to his feet to allow him to walk on the bottom of the sea. With it he plans to use the flower to make the old men of the city of Uruk young again and then himself. Unfortunately, he leaves the plant on the shore of a lake while he bathes, there it is stolen by a serpent.
The story ends with Gilgamesh weeping after having failed to achieve immortality and is brought back to Uruk by the ferryman Urshanabi, where, like all mortals he finally dies.
*
Pat admitted the goal of Lifegen was to discover the mechanisms to reverse ageing, and if not immortality then great age, without the ravages and decay that had always been the scourge of human ageing.
‘You see Anna, Lifegen is engaged in biomedical research into new therapies that could cure and prevent the diseases and disabilities of ageing,’ Pat told her, trying a more positive tack, ‘new ways of repairing the damage that builds up in our bodies over time.
‘It is a scientific fact that ageing is caused by the damage to the cellular and molecular structures of our bodies, as we age microscopic dysfunctioning slowly and imperceptibly eats away at our bodies.
‘So, the goal we have set at Lifegen is to develop new kinds of drugs; the kinds that will regenerate cells, and eliminate the causes of their dysfunctioning. Returning ageing tissues to health, restoring the body’s youthful vigour,’ he said, evidently pleased with his explanation.
‘Our objective is to develop regenerative therapeutics to achieve these objectives, biotechnologies that will make life better.’
Anna smiled and wondered for who.
This is the End of Book I