2.19.2010

Thanks, peoples!

My page visits seem to have jumped quite a lot in the past day or so, which is very nice to see.  Hi!
I'm reasonably certain a lot of that is thanks to Samurai Knitter who also blogs about knitting and science (her favorite flavor is botany) and history and other fun stuff in a lovely, snarky manner.  Also, she has a cat named Sekhmet and a daughter likely to become a mad scientist in the near future, so really, staying on her good side before they (the cat and daughter) take over the world is probably a good idea.

One of my Egyptological buddies (in fact we started grad school together lo these many years ago) gave me the transliteration for "Suck it, old man" -  snqy s i iAw.  Glad to see all those years of hard work paid off.  I genuinely appreciate him saving me the effort of trying to figure it out myself.  I firmly maintain that the weird MRI spots on my brain are located directly over the Egyptian language storage centers.  :P

I'm contemplating trying to do some treatments of Egyptian history in the same way as the Tut stuff on a semi-regular basis.  I had a lot of fun writing these past posts without having to worry about appropriate tone and footnotes and crap.  So, we'll see where that goes.  Requests are welcome.  As it is, I may well just start up with the Predynastic and work forward.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found you through Samurai Knitter, and really enjoyed reading your synopsis - I laughed out loud at your comment on Zawi & Ms. Fletcher. I studied Egyptian Art History at NYU way back in the late 80's and early 90's, before my advisor Bernard v. Bothmer died and I realized how fiscally irresponsible the degree/career was going to be. After reading your entries, I may have to add a few new sites to my reading list and start keeping up with what's going on in the field.

Barbara said...

I found you through Samurai Knitter too. I totally agree that Sekhmet and The Goob will be in charge of all the universe very soon.

Yes, please, I would love a series of posts on Egyptian history since the sum of my knowledge consists of what I glean from Amelia Peabody novels. Not bad considering they're written by an Egyptologist so I figure they have a lot of fact in the fiction, but still, I could read about those mischievous Egyptians a lot more.

Julie said...

Start with pre-dynastic. I'm very curious about what we've got archeologically of the 'lead in' to the civilization. What do we have of them learning to write, their math, etc? I can never find good info on that stuff.

Ann said...

I'm Barbara's daughter, and I second everything she said! I'll add that scholarly tone and footnotes and crap would make these way less interesting for us dilettante-types.

Unknown said...

I'll start up with the Predynastic then, hopefully this week.
Barbara, I *love* the Amelia Peabody series. I've been saving the last few books for the next time I need an extra special treat. I especially love that Elizabeth Peters = Barbara Mertz. And I've learned stuff from those books too, especially the good gossipy stuff about Egyptologists.
Her books (as Mertz) on Egyptian history are wonderful. Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs is why I wanted to come to the University of Chicago.