Artifacts of belief: a novel excerpt

Alison Miller
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:45:29 PDT

When Maria signs up to participate in a two-month-long archaeological dig in Turkey, her expectations for the summer are low. Having fallen out of love with her graduate studies in evolutionary biology and still coping with the aftermath of her father's recent death, Maria hopes for nothing more than a pleasant distraction. While helping to excavate a Neolithic settlement called Kuşların Tepesi, however, Maria happens to unearth a strange figurine whose purpose and meaning are a mystery. The emergence of the figurine kindles the resurgence of a decades-old debate about gender, religion, and who is allowed to interpret history. Maria's situation is further complicated when she stumbles across a journal written by one of the site's previous excavators, and finds herself drawn into a murky web of academic scandal, family secrets, and ideological conflict. Somewhere between historical and speculative fiction and academic thriller, Artifacts of Belief invites the reader to think about the hidden ways in which the past shapes the present, and about the complicated relationship between belief and truth. Through Maria's quest for the truth about the strange figurine and the history of Kuşların Tepesi, the novel explores themes of gender, heritage, place, spirituality, and abuse of power. Across continents and millennia, blood and dirt, one thing is certain: the past can be buried, but it can't be erased.