After a few blood- red credits on a black background, the film opens with a prologue. The locale is an archaeological dig site deep in the arid desert of Northern Iraq - near the ancient town of Nineveh. An Arabic prayer is chanted on the soundtrack behind an image of an oblong, burnt-reddish sun.
Workers dig inexorably with pick-axes through mounds of dirt to uncover ancient artifacts.
At the base of the mound. Not of the same period. In the Iraqi marketplace on the streets of Mosul, with a throbbing, drumming sound, the strain is evident as Merrin's hand shakes when he takes his heart medicine. Iron workers clang their hammers on anvils near a red-hot burning furnace. Ominously, the swinging pendulum of the clock behind him stops working.