The era sits squarely in the antediluvian period, centuries before 4000 b.c.. Seth summons his descendants to his deathbed on the cold summit of the Holy Mountain. The thin air of the high altitude bites at their lungs as they gather around their patriarch. A thick dread settles over the congregation. They watch a man who lived 912 years finally give way to physical collapse. His failing breath brings a strange comfort to his exhausted family. They know his heavy labor is done.
Seth delivers his final mandate inside the cavern walls. He orders his children to remain on the mountain. He strictly forbids them from descending into the valley to mix with the lineage of Cain. This is a basic matter of clan survival. The mountain offers isolation and safety. The valley below holds the growing metalworking industry and chaotic violence of the Cainite camps. Seth dies. His son Enos takes charge of the clan. Enos and his brothers embalm their father with sweet spices. They place his body deep inside the Cave of Treasures.
The embalming spices serve as a crude barrier against decay. Ancient desert dwellers relied on myrrh and cassia to mask the brutal reality of death in enclosed spaces. The family seals the corpse in stone to keep the rotting flesh away from the living. This act translates a spiritual reverence for a patriarch into a blunt sanitary necessity. Grief requires men to handle dead weight and strong odors.
A good burial hides the rot, but it never stops the decay.
The Cave of Treasures held the embalmed remains of the early patriarchs for generations. The mountain tomb stood as a geographic marker dividing the isolated faithful from the sprawling industry of the valley below.