So when Ben went to his secret room, he moved the clothes aside and opened a door to reveal a stone door covered in hieroglyphics, which he then went through. When he emerged, he was covered in soot, seemed way more focused, and after a couple of moments, the smoke monster, looking like a giant black snake, made it's appearance. Doc Arzt and Friends' Lost Blog has an attempt at a translation. The symbols could mean any of the following:

• To summon protection
• Time to summon strength
• To summon time protection
• To summon time power
• Time summons the power of life

Seems we're summoning something! Is it time (that's that what I think), protection, power, strength?

Do you think Ben went into the that tunnel and traveled through time, or did he go into the tunnel to summon smokey? Or maybe both (and perhaps neither).