Ten Years Ago Yesterday

This was me, taking my ending levels for the day at the dig at Abydos. You can see the Dec 01 04 date stamp in the upper right (I've posted this photo here before, thus the watermark at the bottom).

Things that are different:

• I don't smoke anymore
• About 40 extra pounds
• I'm soon to be divorced instead of recently married
• Hopefully I'm a lot nicer now than I was then.

Unknown Dangers in Ancient Egypt

Artifact - Archaeology Magazine
Monkeys stealing your nose. Or maybe picking it 

I'm not dead, just lazy

I've gone almost a full month without posting. Shame on me!
Part of my absence has been due to uncertainty. I'm teaching now and so I'm trying not to say anything too obvious about what and who and where and such. Really, I should probably quit being quite so paranoid.

Anyway, I was supposed to teach over the summer term but enrollment for that class was insufficient. I'm working on a fall course on Egyptian religion and magic. Ironically, that's an area where I don't have a hell of a lot of direct experience. To be honest, though, Egyptian religion and magic is more or less reconstructed indirectly.

If you're doing quizzical head-tilts now, let me attempt to explain:

Egyptian religion, like a hell of a lot of religions, didn't really have divine, revelatory texts. By which I mean, there isn't something like a Bible or Koran from ancient Egypt (or a hell of a lot of other places either). There is no tradition of a deity or his supernatural spokes-ghost dictating to a human who wrote everything down and then a bunch of people tried to interpret it and wow has that been a mess for a long time.
So, there is no handy-dandy Book of Genesis equivalent from ancient Egypt to explain how the world was created (in multiple, sometimes contradictory versions).
Nor did anyone sit down and collect the various myths and stories etc like Hesiod did for Greco-Roman mythology.

Instead we have lots and lots of art work, things like the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead that give us bits and pieces of information that we then try to make sense of. I suspect this is going to be difficult for some people to grasp, but hopefully I will get them there in the end.

In other news, the climate (or something) is making me retain water to a ridiculous degree. My hands and feet puff up and it's just unpleasant. I pushed way too much doing stuff a few weeks ago and am still paying for it in fatigue and general blehs.

Oreo is still enjoying being able to wander around a little on walks, but he is not so fond of the heat and humidity and allergies. The weather here has been waaaay more reasonable than in Chicago, though, plus we have central air conditioning. Yay!

Archaeology that makes me squee!!!

Today my class took a test the first half of class, so I did some reading to prep questions about the other textbook I assigned: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
This resulted in the following gems:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Feeding Cup
Why, yes, that is an ancient baby sippy-cup. And it is awesome.

The other thing was this:

...white dogs with large black spots make a regular appearance in Middle Kingdom tombs as pets, and even as guardian deities...

Yup, totally a guardian deity.

Ozymandias Improved

Last month, I decided that improving Shelley's poem Ozymandias needed to be on my time-travel to-do list.

Today, I saw something about the site xtranormal, which lets you create little animated movies with whatever script you'd like.  It's fairly easy to use, even if you have practically no video or animation experience.  Inspiration, or possibly migraine aura, struck and so I decided to make a short movie with the improved version of the line in question.




I can't quite get him to say "bitches" the way I'd like, but hey, for 15 minutes of effort, not bad.

Before the Pyramids Sneak Peek (3)

Before the Pyramids Sneak Peek (3)

Some wonderful photos and peeks behind the scenes of the OI's latest temporary exhibit "Egypt Before the Pyramids." Beautiful, beautiful Predynastic pots. Very nifty.

These are on the Oriental Institute's Facebook page, but you should be able to view them even if you are not a member of Facebook.

Depression Strikes Again

Image via Wikipedia

It's the mummy of Ramses II.  Not really applicable, I just wanted to put  it in

I had another bad episode of depression crop up last weekend, which is why the blog has been so quiet for over a week. 
I'm feeling much better now emotionally, though the weather has been hard on me physically.  Almost every day has gotten me a weather warning for either arthritis or migraine.  Buhh.

We're still watching events in Egypt unfold and hoping for the best for Egyptians.

On a lighter note, I've been sleeping in more the past week (into the afternoon, frequently) and it seems as though every time I stagger out of bed, often the first thing I find out is that someone has been deposed or protests have cropped up somewhere new. 

Eyewitness account of violence in Tahrir Square, Cairo

The following was posted by Nicole Hansen, an Egyptologist living in Egypt.  I'm cutting and pasting the text from the "Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum" group on Facebook as well as posting a screen shot.

I was at Tahrir today from 11am until shortly after the rocks started flying. I can confirm that the violence was started by criminals and secret police. They started with sending a prostitute out to taunt the peaceful demonstrators with nasty words and vulgar gestures. There were many plainclothes police in the crowd. Some openly admitting they were police. The peaceful demonstrators were being very vigilant for troublemakers. They stopped one man who they suspected was police and demanded his id. He refused at first but finally handed it over, and ran away. I saw the id with my own eyes. Before we left, we started to see ordinary people dragging away plainclothes police they had caught making trouble and handing them over to the army. The rocks started flying at this time and fortunately we got out of there as soon as a horse came in. I missed the molotov cocktails but I can assure you that it is not possible that this was the ordinary citizens who came in that brought these because the peaceful anti-government protesters were all searched and patted down on entry. The pro-Mubarak ones were allowed in from the other side by the museum, probably without a proper search.

But please understand what circumstances we are all living under here. My husband has just gone downstairs for his neighborhood guard duty of the night, armed with a heavy iron axel taken from a car that is over a meter long. With the complete disappearance of the police (except to make trouble) from the streets and the release of all the prisoners from the prisons, we have no choice. Our neighborhood goes on lockdown at sunset, a lockdown made by the people in order to protect our property, our lives and the businesses and yes even a museum and archaeological site in our neighborhood. We have checkpoints on every block and any criminals caught are handed over to the police. No one who isn't a resident is let in. The area where the museum in our neighborhood is, is being defended by ordinary Egyptian citizens with guns.

We are all very concerned about the Egyptian Museum, but please, what we need first is to restore order and save the Egyptian people.

Egypt Antiquities Resources

Compiled by the wonderful Megaera Lorenz
Document is now available on Google Docs for editing or editions.  Check there for the most up to date resources.

Egypt Crisis: Resources by Category

1. FACEBOOK

I have not figured out a good way to link directly to Facebook groups (as opposed to pages), so I’ll just list the names of groups here. They are easy to find with the search function.

Sarah Parcak has created the Facebook group "Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum!" as a place to gather information, keep track of new developments, and attempt to analyze the damage as it happens. This group has been extremely active, and is drawing media attention.

A similar group has been formed by Jaques Kinnaer called "Protect Egyptian Cultural Heritage."

The Facebook community Egyptologists for Egypt (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Egyptologists-for-Egypt-Supporting-the-peoples-demands/ ) is also a good source of news, particularly for keeping track of the status of various missions and individuals who are in the field now.

2. SITES TRACKING THE STATUS OF ANTIQUITIES

Egyptological Looting Database(http://egyptopaedia.com/2011/): A place for users to submit new information about looting as it comes in.

ARCE (http://arce.org): ARCE is posting updates on the situation in Egypt, and is also collecting contact information for Egyptologists currently in Egypt. Director Gerry Scott is coordinating efforts to help Egyptologists in Egypt leave the country if necessary.

Egyptian Crisis News (http://aiamilitarypanel.org/news/egyptian-crisis-news-and-discussion/): A compilation of information about the danger to Egypt's antiquities.

Egyptologists' Electronic Forum (http://www.egyptologyforum.org/): There is a very active ongoing thread with information about the situation in Egypt ("Unrest in Egypt").

Map of antiquities thefts (http://ancientegyptonline.org/egyptnews/p/mapofantiquitiestheft)

Zahi Hawass' blog (http://www.drhawass.com/blog/state-egyptian-antiquities-today-update): Statements from Zahi Hawass, now Minister of Antiquities.

Egyptology News (http://egyptology.blogspot.com/)

3. ORGANIZATIONS AND POLITICAL ENTITIES CONCERNED WITH CULTURAL HERITAGE

I'm quoting a document posted by Jaques Kinnaer on the Facebook group “Protect Egyptian Cultural Heritage”:

The following is (to become) a list of official government instances around the world that can be made aware of the threat to Egypt's Cultural Heritage. You can use it to see if it already contains URLs, e-mail address and/or addresses of your Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Science/Tourism or any other official instance that may be able to help in one way or another.

This document can be edited by any member of the group, so if you notice that the information for your country is missing or incomplete, please add it to the document.

The contact information is (to be) grouped by country, and if possible, try to keep them in alphabetical order. I will go through the list regularly to sort it, if necessary, but if the information is entered in structured and sorted way, that will be less work for all of us :-)

Thanks :-)

Jacques.

***

Belgium

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (webform): 

• in Dutch: http://diplomatie.belgium.be/nl/Contact/
• in French: http://diplomatie.belgium.be/fr/Contact/

Egyptian Embassy in Brussels:

• address: Uruguaylaan 19,  1000 Brussel
• phones: +0032 02 6635800  ; +0032 02 6635820  ; +0032 02 6755888  ; 
• e-mail: egyptembassy@embassyofegypt.be
• e-mail: eg.sec.be@hotmail.com
• website: http://www.embassyofegypt.be/
• website: http://www.egyptembassy.org/ 

European Union

• Commission of Culture e-mail: eac-culture@ec.europa.eu
• External relations web-form: http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/feedback/question2.htm

UK

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

• Email: enquiries@culture.gov.uk
• Web form: http://www.culture.gov.uk/contact_us/default.aspx
• Website: http://www.culture.gov.uk/
• Address: 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DH, UK

UNESCO

• address: 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France
• address: 1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15 France
• webiste: www.unesco.org
• web-form: http://www.unesco-ci.org/knowledgebase/contact.php

Egyptian Cultural Heritage Legislation (http://www.cprinst.org/cultural-heritage-legislation-in-egypt): Information from the Cultural Policy Research Institute.

SAFE (Saving Antiquities for Everyone): main site (http://www.savingantiquities.org/) and blog (http://safecorner.savingantiquities.org/)

Blue Shield statement on Egypt from the IFLA (http://www.ifla.org/en/news/blue-shield-statement-on-egypt)

4. INFORMATION ON BYPASSING COMMUNICATION BLACKOUTS

The communications blackout seems to be ending for now, with internet service being restored in Egypt as of today. However, in case the situation changes again, here are several sites with information on how to communicate to and from Egypt via internet or phone.

Telecom Instructions (http://wl-tsunami.posterous.com/egypt-telecomix-instructions-for-net-connecti): Instructions and a list of telecom services offering free long-distance dial-up service for people in Egypt.

Google/Twitter's Speak 2Tweet service (http://twitter.com/speak2tweet): People in Egypt can call +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855 to leave or listen to voice messages.

Alive in Egypt (http://egypt.alive.in/): Transcriptions and translations of Speak2Tweet posts.

5. GENERAL NEWS AND INFORMATION

Al Jazeera English (http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/): Live stream of the latest developments in Egypt.

BBC Live Feed (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698)

CNN coverage (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/egypt)

Egypt

Image by shoveling_ferret via FlickrI feel like I should say something about recent events in Egypt.  Really, the demonstrations, etc. were only a matter of time, but I think *this particular time* surprised a lot of people. 

I mostly stayed out of a lot of detail regarding modern Egyptian politics.  What I did know always made me wonder from time to time if I should be there at all.  Not because I feared for my own safety, but more out of a sense of concern that I was somehow tacitly supporting a fairly nasty dictatorial regime.

The flip side of that, though, was the knowledge that a revolution could wind up making things worse if crazy fundies wound up in charge. 

I really, really hope things get better.  I can't begin to imagine how to revamp Egyptian government to be better after decades of entrenched dictatorship and police-state habits, but I hope and pray that it can be done.  It's time to stop throwing people in jail just for saying unpopular things, time to stop rampant corruption and greed, time to stop brutality and torture in jails and prisons.

I didn't get to spend as much time in Egypt as I'd have liked and did not get to spend as much time with Egyptians as I'd have liked either, but the men and boys I worked with were nice, good-humored, ordinary people.  The people I met on the streets were too.   Even at a time when US foreign policy had made the US unpopular in a lot of the world, no one treated us like crap for being Americans.
I guess the point I'm trying to make none too elegantly is that Egyptians are people just like the rest of us, they just want to be able to make a living and be safe and happy.  Unfortunately, unlike most of us in America, that isn't very easy in Egypt any more.

I've seen reports that some of the protesters have been helping the police and military to protect the Cairo Museum.  I have no problem believing that to be true.  Many Egyptians are incredibly proud of their heritage.  They are also well aware that a lot of the economy is based around tourism. 

I hope very much that this situation resolves as peacefully and successfully as possible.  And my thoughts are not only with friends there now, but with everyone there now, especially the people putting themselves in harms way for what they believe in and what they hope to see in the future.

National Geographic Channel to produce comedy set in ancient Egypt

National Geographic Channel to produce comedy set in ancient Egypt

I...what?

Anyway, Tony Robinson (Baldric from Blackadder) is involved but mostly, I'm just really confused.

Totally Metal

I was looking through Ancient Egyptian Jewelry and stumbled on a photo of the mummy of Katebet (BM EA 6665).  Her mask and pectoral cover include her hands (made of wood).  Some of the fingers are broken off.  If you go take a look at her photo on the British Museum website  you can see that she is totally (almost) rocking some devil-horns.

This makes perfect sense, as she was a Chantress of Amun.  I bet she got crazy with the sistrum and was all dunn nuh nuh nuh nuh dunnnnuhnuh, Amun is the best!  Woo!

Tom has suggested she be renamed "Metal-amun" so start your letter-writing campaign to the British Museum now.  I'm sure they love getting crazy emails from random people - I know I did when I worked for a museum.  They may even have a Greatest Hits file.

Crazy Awesome Dreams

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cesarastudillo/ / CC BY 2.0

I usually dream fairly vividly and remember a fair amount about my dreams the next day, though not always longer than that.

Last night, I dreamt about an antique sewing machine. I have no idea what context the sewing machine belonged in in the actual dream, but I remember the machine because it was AMAZING. It was one of the elaborately painted ones like the awesome Egyptian-themed one I found on Flickr featured above (the sphinxes are fabulous). But it was multicolored - most of the antique Singers I've seen tend to be black with shaded gold decoration. This one had metallics in all kinds of colors - green, blue, pink, red, purple. It was awesome. I can't really remember the motifs other than the sort of general vegetation-inspired scrollwork that seems to have been popular.

And the machine itself was still perfectly useable. Nifty.

I dream about crafty stuff fairly frequently now, which I find amusing. I rarely, if ever dream or dreamed about Egyptological stuff or archaeology. Knitting is a common thing as I'm drifting off, but it's supposed to be fairly common to visualize such things as one drifts off (or so I think I read somewhere, though I can't find the source now, dammit), especially if you've been doing it recently. I don't think I usually dream about the actual process of crocheting though - maybe because it doesn't involve both my hands quite so much? But finished projects or nearly finished projects pop up quite frequently - like the plan to decoupage and paint the dresser or bookshelves (a predominately pale-blue with brown diamonds or stripes seems to be what my brain prefers...), sewn dresses and napkins and curtains, and other things.

Mummified puppy found in Egyptian tomb - Wireless- msnbc.com

Mummified puppy found in Egyptian tomb - Wireless- msnbc.com

Cats get a lot of press in relation to ancient Egypt, especially because of the goddess Bastet.  Dogs get relatively short shrift, in part, as Jennifer Wegner mentions in the article, there wasn't really a dog deity in ancient Egypt.  

Dogs were fairly popular, however, and there were definitely some dog people - like on of the Intefs who erected a stela dedicated to his dogs, who also had names.  In some ways, I find the fact the dogs were named even more significant than the stela.

This puppy's name, if he had one, appears not to have been preserved, so he has been dubbed "Hapi-Puppy" by the researchers.  I realize some might find it rather horrific that the puppy was probably killed so that he could be mummified to accompany his master, but if you think of it from the ancient Egyptian perspective, it's actually a rather remarkable testament to the affection Hapi-Men felt for his pet.

Incidentally, this is not a recently excavated mummy, though the story does give that impression - both Hapi-Men and his puppy have been in the U Penn collection for some time.

Found via Egyptology News