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Tonight I went to a lecture at the Penn Museum on the Roman Theater at Corinth. The lecturer, Charles Williams, was clearly incredibly knowledgeable and intelligent--he used to direct the excavations at Corinth and is leading another dig there this spring--and he seemed really nice and funny. Sadly, he wasn't the best public speaker in the world--he stuttered some, got lost in his notes, and was perplexed by the slide projector on a few occasions. The material was still really interesting, and I think I would really enjoy reading a book by Williams, but the lecture wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. It started at 6:00; I had trains at 7:11 and 8:11, and when he ran a little over time, I snuck out early to catch the 7:11 train. (Luckily I discovered that the University City station is right behind the Museum, so I was able to catch most of the lecture and still make the train.)
Yesterday K and I took a long lunch to go to a lecture at the Penn Museum! The lunchtime lectures are 12:30-1:30 this year, as opposed to 12-1 like it was last year. K and I planned ahead and left the office by 11:45 and arrived at the Museum around 12:20--unlike at the two events last spring, we were so not late, we were actually early! We got good seats and were there for the beginning of the talk and everything. Score.
The lecture was titled "Scribes and Dwarves and a Toad, Oh, My!: Conservation of El Peru Figurine Group". Lynn Grant was a really engaging speaker, and her topic was fascinating. She's not an archaeologist but a conservator of ancient objects, and she's often consulted about how to conserve various items properly. In this case, a group of really neat Mayan figurines was discovered at a site in northern Guatemala, and Lynn was brought in first of all to conserve them and secondly to teach a young Guatemalan conservator how to do it. So her mission was doubly cool (working with unique objects, and educating the local talent). She talked about how she was recruited into doing this, how it was done, her experience in Guatemala, and all kinds of information about the figurines themselves. She was funny and smart and we totally loved her talk. And K and I were both all grumpy about work yesterday and considered not going, but then we were so glad we did.
Note for next time: pick up some lunch for K on the way over, even if she doesn't feel hungry, or otherwise her stomach may rumble dramatically halfway through the lecture.
The lecture was titled "Scribes and Dwarves and a Toad, Oh, My!: Conservation of El Peru Figurine Group". Lynn Grant was a really engaging speaker, and her topic was fascinating. She's not an archaeologist but a conservator of ancient objects, and she's often consulted about how to conserve various items properly. In this case, a group of really neat Mayan figurines was discovered at a site in northern Guatemala, and Lynn was brought in first of all to conserve them and secondly to teach a young Guatemalan conservator how to do it. So her mission was doubly cool (working with unique objects, and educating the local talent). She talked about how she was recruited into doing this, how it was done, her experience in Guatemala, and all kinds of information about the figurines themselves. She was funny and smart and we totally loved her talk. And K and I were both all grumpy about work yesterday and considered not going, but then we were so glad we did.
Note for next time: pick up some lunch for K on the way over, even if she doesn't feel hungry, or otherwise her stomach may rumble dramatically halfway through the lecture.
Last night K and I went to the Penn Museum to attend:
Great Archaeological Discoveries: The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and the Origins of the English Speaking Peoples, by Dr. Richard Hodges
Description: Dr. Hodges will examine the extraordinary objects found in these excavations which reveal a story of how the English peoples began to have a new identity as well as new ambitions.
The event started at 6 PM. We left the office at maybe 5:15, and then stopped for a quick dinner, which turned out to be delicious but less quick than we'd hoped (although we wolfed those salads down and felt a bit sick afterwards). So we ended up being 20 minutes late. Apparently that was a pretty crucial 20 minutes. We saw slides of the extraordinary objects, and heard about the story of the English peoples, but we missed most of how the find came to be, um, found, and who found it and why. We got the gist of it, but as Dr. Hodges continued to refer to those people, we kept feeling like we were missing the joke. Still a really good talk, and we both enjoyed it, but we agreed that we liked the intimate feel of the lunchtime lecture more. This event was crowded!
Also, this website about the lecture series states that there will be a related gallery tour after each lecture, as well as light refreshments. We got the light refreshments (which included several tasty cheeses!), but there was no gallery tour. We were a bit sad. However, I did catch the earlier train home, so I guess it was for the best. I guess I don't really need to spend all night galivanting around archaeological finds! (At least, not until I'm independently wealthy and can afford that PhD.)
No more lectures for the summer, apparently, although we picked up fliers about next year's lecture series. Hopefully all the archaeologists will spend their summers digging up cool stuff that we can then go hear them talk about next year. We've decided that next year, we will leave earlier and arrive on time.
Great Archaeological Discoveries: The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and the Origins of the English Speaking Peoples, by Dr. Richard Hodges
Description: Dr. Hodges will examine the extraordinary objects found in these excavations which reveal a story of how the English peoples began to have a new identity as well as new ambitions.
The event started at 6 PM. We left the office at maybe 5:15, and then stopped for a quick dinner, which turned out to be delicious but less quick than we'd hoped (although we wolfed those salads down and felt a bit sick afterwards). So we ended up being 20 minutes late. Apparently that was a pretty crucial 20 minutes. We saw slides of the extraordinary objects, and heard about the story of the English peoples, but we missed most of how the find came to be, um, found, and who found it and why. We got the gist of it, but as Dr. Hodges continued to refer to those people, we kept feeling like we were missing the joke. Still a really good talk, and we both enjoyed it, but we agreed that we liked the intimate feel of the lunchtime lecture more. This event was crowded!
Also, this website about the lecture series states that there will be a related gallery tour after each lecture, as well as light refreshments. We got the light refreshments (which included several tasty cheeses!), but there was no gallery tour. We were a bit sad. However, I did catch the earlier train home, so I guess it was for the best. I guess I don't really need to spend all night galivanting around archaeological finds! (At least, not until I'm independently wealthy and can afford that PhD.)
No more lectures for the summer, apparently, although we picked up fliers about next year's lecture series. Hopefully all the archaeologists will spend their summers digging up cool stuff that we can then go hear them talk about next year. We've decided that next year, we will leave earlier and arrive on time.
Josh Ritter video - "The Curse"
May. 28th, 2010 01:45 pmThis is my absolute new favorite thing: a beautiful song, puppets, archaeology, and mummies, all together! You should all go watch it immediately!
Today K and I went to a lecture at the Penn Museum! The subject was "Recent Fieldwork: Troy, Gordion & the Granicus River Valley", and not much other info was offered on the website, but it was free and at lunchtime so we went. It turns out that C. Brian Rose (Deputy Director, Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Classical Studies) is an engaging speaker! We sadly arrived ten minutes late and didn't realize we could bring our lunches, but I mostly forgot about that as we listened to Dr. Rose's talk. He's been excavating at Troy for like 25 years. He works with a German collaborator--Dr. Rose's expertise is the later Mediterranean, and the German guy focuses on Bronze Age, which is the moneymaker in Troy, but it means that wherever the German guy wants to dig, Dr. Rose has to get there first because as you dig down you hit all the Roman and Greek stuff before you get to the Bronze era. He talked about all the interesting things they've found, and the controversies they've had to deal with, and he was bright and funny. Now I know about defensive ditches and contentious Germans!
I am so sad that I didn't know about this lecture series before! I think this is probably about it for the academic year, too, because everyone will be off to their excavation seasons for the summer. There's an evening lecture in June that we're going to try to hit, but I don't see anything else after that.
I am so sad that I didn't know about this lecture series before! I think this is probably about it for the academic year, too, because everyone will be off to their excavation seasons for the summer. There's an evening lecture in June that we're going to try to hit, but I don't see anything else after that.
Full title: The Portland Vase: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure. It's sort of a pop archaeology book; Brooks is described on the cover flap as "an actor and author"--he's not an expert in the field. It's well researched, though, with an extensive bibliography, and it's decently written. Brooks describes the (possibly falsified) finding of the vase in a Roman tomb in the 1500s and then follows its story ever since, describing all the crazy people who've owned it, studied it, copied it, or damaged it over its long life. He also goes into all the theories that abound regarding the mysterious figures depicted on the vase. A little slow at some points--I've been working on it since last week--but overall, it was a fun read.
wonderful mummy poem
Apr. 24th, 2008 11:38 amI absolutely adore this poem. Fritz sent it to me, proving that he knows me very, very well. I especially love how peaceful the speaker is. It's beautiful.
-----
Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh XXI Dynasty
by Thomas James
My body holds its shape. The genius is intact.
Will I return to Thebes? In that lost country
The eucalyptus trees have turned to stone.
Once, branches nudged me, dropping swollen blossoms,
And passionflowers lit my father's garden.
Is it still there, that place of mottled shadow,
The scarlet flowers breathing in the darkness?
I remember how I died. It was so simple!
One morning the garden faded. My face blacked out.
On my left side they made the first incision.
They washed my heart and liver in palm wine—
My lungs were two dark fruit they stuffed with spices.
They smeared my innards with a sticky unguent
And sealed them in a crock of alabaster.
My brain was next. A pointed instrument
Hooked it through my nostrils, strand by strand.
A voice swayed over me. I paid no notice.
For weeks my body swam in sweet perfume.
I came out Scoured. I was skin and bone.
Thy lifted me into the sun again
And packed my empty skull with cinnamon.
They slit my toes; a razor gashed my fingertips.
Stitched shut at last, my limbs were chaste and valuable,
Stuffed with a paste of cloves and wild honey.
My eyes were empty, so they filled them up,
Inserting little nuggets of obsidian.
A basalt scarab wedged between my breasts
Replaced the tinny music of my heart.
Hands touched my sutures. I was so important!
They oiled my pores, rubbing a fragrance in.
An amber gum oozed down to soothe my temples.
I wanted to sit up. My skin was luminous,
Frail as the shadow of an emerald.
Before I learned to love myself too much,
My body wound itself in spools of linen.
Shut in my painted box, I am a precious object.
I wear a wooden mask. These are my eyelids,
Two flakes of bronze, and here is my new mouth,
Chiseled with care, guarding its ruby facets.
I will last forever. I am not impatient—
My skin will wait to greet its old complexions.
I'll lie here till the world swims back again.
When I come home the garden will be budding,
White petals breaking open, clusters of night flowers,
The far-off music of a tambourine.
A boy will pace among the passionflowers,
His eyes no longer two bruised surfaces.
I'll know the mouth of my young groom, I'll touch
His hands. Why do people lie to one another?
-----
Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh XXI Dynasty
by Thomas James
My body holds its shape. The genius is intact.
Will I return to Thebes? In that lost country
The eucalyptus trees have turned to stone.
Once, branches nudged me, dropping swollen blossoms,
And passionflowers lit my father's garden.
Is it still there, that place of mottled shadow,
The scarlet flowers breathing in the darkness?
I remember how I died. It was so simple!
One morning the garden faded. My face blacked out.
On my left side they made the first incision.
They washed my heart and liver in palm wine—
My lungs were two dark fruit they stuffed with spices.
They smeared my innards with a sticky unguent
And sealed them in a crock of alabaster.
My brain was next. A pointed instrument
Hooked it through my nostrils, strand by strand.
A voice swayed over me. I paid no notice.
For weeks my body swam in sweet perfume.
I came out Scoured. I was skin and bone.
Thy lifted me into the sun again
And packed my empty skull with cinnamon.
They slit my toes; a razor gashed my fingertips.
Stitched shut at last, my limbs were chaste and valuable,
Stuffed with a paste of cloves and wild honey.
My eyes were empty, so they filled them up,
Inserting little nuggets of obsidian.
A basalt scarab wedged between my breasts
Replaced the tinny music of my heart.
Hands touched my sutures. I was so important!
They oiled my pores, rubbing a fragrance in.
An amber gum oozed down to soothe my temples.
I wanted to sit up. My skin was luminous,
Frail as the shadow of an emerald.
Before I learned to love myself too much,
My body wound itself in spools of linen.
Shut in my painted box, I am a precious object.
I wear a wooden mask. These are my eyelids,
Two flakes of bronze, and here is my new mouth,
Chiseled with care, guarding its ruby facets.
I will last forever. I am not impatient—
My skin will wait to greet its old complexions.
I'll lie here till the world swims back again.
When I come home the garden will be budding,
White petals breaking open, clusters of night flowers,
The far-off music of a tambourine.
A boy will pace among the passionflowers,
His eyes no longer two bruised surfaces.
I'll know the mouth of my young groom, I'll touch
His hands. Why do people lie to one another?
Full title: The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Nonfiction; another great library find. Starting with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, this book describes how the ancient Egyptian civilization was rediscovered and how hieroglyphs came to be deciphered. The Rosetta Stone had a lot less to do with it than we were all led to believe. Also, Jean-Francois Champollion is my new goddamn hero. He learned a couple dozen languages and worked on it for over 20 years, while several different revolutions were going on in France and while he was living in poverty, but he's the guy who eventually came up with the method of decipherment that actually worked. He didn't receive nearly enough acclaim during his lifetime--there are apparently *still* people trying to discredit him today, and they were a lot nastier about it then--and he died way too young, at 41. I was really glad to read that he eventually got to go to Egypt, though. That made me happy that he was able to actually go and see it all in person.
I liked his other book (The Rape of the Nile) better, but this one was okay. About how archaeologists use technology to find out things about the past, and all kinds of scientists are needed in order to gather information. There were some sections that I thought were really interesting, but other sections about the plant life and climate of ancient Mesopotamia that just made me doze off.
Fascinating news!
Aug. 7th, 2007 08:25 pmFirst: Timbuktu Hopes Ancient Texts Spark a Revival
Timbuktu was apparently a major cultural center in Africa in the Middle Ages, and now all the families there are unearthing their ancient books and preserving them. Africa's hoping to make Timbuktu a place people will want to visit and study. Awesome!
Second: Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from Finnish shop
This squirrel steals the kinder egg, unwraps it, eats the chocolate, and then takes the toy away with him!
Timbuktu was apparently a major cultural center in Africa in the Middle Ages, and now all the families there are unearthing their ancient books and preserving them. Africa's hoping to make Timbuktu a place people will want to visit and study. Awesome!
Second: Chocoholic squirrel steals treats from Finnish shop
This squirrel steals the kinder egg, unwraps it, eats the chocolate, and then takes the toy away with him!
I'm an ancient language!
Jul. 22nd, 2007 10:00 pmYour Score: Phoenician
You scored
You are the Phoenician Alphabet! Teacher of the Greeks and Etruscans, you are the one all languages bow down to. That is, until the Romans decide to wipe out your civilization. That's the way the cookie crumbles.
| Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
birthdays / archaeology
Jun. 29th, 2007 10:37 amFirst of all...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUSANNA!!
Secondly, has anyone else heard about Queen Hatshepsut's mummy? Archaeologists have positively identified an obese female mummy as Hatshepsut, the queen who ruled as pharaoh. They were able to identify her because they had a tooth, found in a box marked with Hatshepsut's name and also containing her mummified organs, and they were able to match the tooth to one that the mummy was missing. Pretty neat!
National Geographic photo gallery of Hatshepsut's mummy
article on Reuters
Description of the discovery on Dr. Zahi Hawass's website
another article about Hatshepsut from Hawass's website, dated June 2006, in which he's darn sure that the fat mummy is not Hatshepsut. He's obviously changed his mind now!
You should look at Hawass's articles, they're fun to read. Hawass is Egypt's leading antiquities expert, in charge of the Cairo museum. He's really good with the media, and I think the Discovery channel loves him; he's also written tons of books, many of which are geared towards the not at all academic reader. The articles on the website have a bit of an overdramatic, fun tone, but I definitely think there's room for a little Indiana Jones in modern archaelogists. I like the guy, I want to pick up some of his stuff.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUSANNA!!
Secondly, has anyone else heard about Queen Hatshepsut's mummy? Archaeologists have positively identified an obese female mummy as Hatshepsut, the queen who ruled as pharaoh. They were able to identify her because they had a tooth, found in a box marked with Hatshepsut's name and also containing her mummified organs, and they were able to match the tooth to one that the mummy was missing. Pretty neat!
National Geographic photo gallery of Hatshepsut's mummy
article on Reuters
Description of the discovery on Dr. Zahi Hawass's website
another article about Hatshepsut from Hawass's website, dated June 2006, in which he's darn sure that the fat mummy is not Hatshepsut. He's obviously changed his mind now!
You should look at Hawass's articles, they're fun to read. Hawass is Egypt's leading antiquities expert, in charge of the Cairo museum. He's really good with the media, and I think the Discovery channel loves him; he's also written tons of books, many of which are geared towards the not at all academic reader. The articles on the website have a bit of an overdramatic, fun tone, but I definitely think there's room for a little Indiana Jones in modern archaelogists. I like the guy, I want to pick up some of his stuff.
books 2007: Ancient Lives, by John Romer
Apr. 19th, 2007 09:30 amFull title: Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaohs' Tombmakers. Heather sent me this. I admit I wasn't too excited at first, but once I started reading, I realized this book is really cool. It's the story of the village people who made the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, based on their own accounts. For 300 years, during the 19th and 20th dynasties, the people in this village trained as stoneworkers and artists and scribes, and they dug and decorated and made sacred the pharaohs' tombs. The scribes kept detailed accounts of their working materials, their payments, and their arguments. Because tombs were their trade, the villagers made really excellent and detailed tombs for themselves; they also kept shrines to the gods, and scratched graffiti all over the desert valleys in the area. There's just a ton of material about these people, and there have been some excellent excavations of the village and cemeteries, and the result is that there is so much information about them--not just where they lived and what they did and what they ate, but their names and their families and their petty disagreements, what they believed in, who they really were. I thought this book was fascinating.
Full title: The Rape of the Nile: Tomb Robbers, Tourists, and Archaeologists in Egypt. This book was AWESOME. Really really great and fun and exciting! And, I mean, sad too, because it talks about how for centuries people have been swiping chunks of ancient Egypt, and the Egyptians have been participating in it because they didn't understand their history. It's really only been in the past 100-125 years that Egypt has started really taking control of their antiquities and not letting foreigners steal their past. But it's sad how so much has been lost because of tourists being stupid, and Egyptians letting them be stupid (or getting pissed off about all the stupid tourists and destroying or selling the local attraction to get rid of the tourists), and how much was lost because early archaeologists wanted to save the objects from tomb robbers so they trashed their way through the tombs to get everything out as fast as possible.
It's a great book, really. It covers the business of antiquities, and the history of archaeology, and the development of archaeology into the science it is today. It also covers the development of Egyptology, and how the decipherment of hieroglyphs made a gigantic difference in how antiquities were treated. It's all just fascinating to me. I had a very vague idea that Napoleon was into Egypt, but I had no clue how influential his expedition was. And I had no idea that a circus strongman was a huge player in the Egyptology scene of the early 1800s. It's all incredibly interesting--the history of Egyptology is an adventure! AND this book had a lot of notes and recommended reading, much of which is going to show up on my amazon wishlist. :)
It's a great book, really. It covers the business of antiquities, and the history of archaeology, and the development of archaeology into the science it is today. It also covers the development of Egyptology, and how the decipherment of hieroglyphs made a gigantic difference in how antiquities were treated. It's all just fascinating to me. I had a very vague idea that Napoleon was into Egypt, but I had no clue how influential his expedition was. And I had no idea that a circus strongman was a huge player in the Egyptology scene of the early 1800s. It's all incredibly interesting--the history of Egyptology is an adventure! AND this book had a lot of notes and recommended reading, much of which is going to show up on my amazon wishlist. :)
Wow, I am completely shocked by how much I absolutely loved this. What an amazing story. So great. And uplifting. And just... great. Apparently most of the other translations on the market are really kind of academic in nature; Mitchell, who is not in any way a scholar of ancient Akkadian, compiled this version by studying all the other translations and doing a lot of research into the word choices and finally just making poetic decisions that seemed to fit the tone of the original epic. And it worked. It was a quick read, and beautifully written, and I want my own copy now. (Besides which, Captain Picard references the story of Gilgamesh in one of my favorite Next Gen episodes! That makes it even more awesome.)
For those of you who don't know, Gilgamesh is basically the earliest epic in world literature--it predates The Iliad by a good thousand years. It's the story of the king of Uruk (present-day Iraq) and his true friend Enkidu and their adventures, and how Gilgamesh sets out to find an antidote for death. ( A few spoilers. )
Some quotes:
"Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live."
- Shiduri the tavern keeper, to Gilgamesh
"...Gilgamesh, why
prolong your grief? Have you ever paused
to compare your own blessed lot with a fool's?
...
the gods have lavished you with their gifts...
...
Can't you see how fortunate you are?
You have worn yourself out through ceaseless striving,
you have filled your muscles with pain and anguish.
And what have you achieved but to bring yourself
one day nearer to the end of your days?"
- Utnapishtim, to Gilgamesh
( More. )
For those of you who don't know, Gilgamesh is basically the earliest epic in world literature--it predates The Iliad by a good thousand years. It's the story of the king of Uruk (present-day Iraq) and his true friend Enkidu and their adventures, and how Gilgamesh sets out to find an antidote for death. ( A few spoilers. )
Some quotes:
"Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and anoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live."
- Shiduri the tavern keeper, to Gilgamesh
"...Gilgamesh, why
prolong your grief? Have you ever paused
to compare your own blessed lot with a fool's?
...
the gods have lavished you with their gifts...
...
Can't you see how fortunate you are?
You have worn yourself out through ceaseless striving,
you have filled your muscles with pain and anguish.
And what have you achieved but to bring yourself
one day nearer to the end of your days?"
- Utnapishtim, to Gilgamesh
( More. )
Eh, this was just okay. I think my biggest problem was that when I bought this book, I didn't realize it was published in 2000. The book is based on a television series about the lives of the pharaohs, and either I saw parts of it, or else I've seen more recent shows on the same subjects. There's a lot of good research being done right now at the intersection of archaeology with science and technology, and this book is just out of date. It focused on three "case studies": Case One looks at how they built the pyramids, Case Two looks at mummies, especially 18th dynasty guys like Tut and Ahkhenaten, using DNA and new technology to see if they had genetic diseases (ie, evidence of inbreeding) and just to see how Tut was related to the preceding kings. I feel like a lot of this information was covered in the really good Nefertiti documentary that was on a few years ago. Case Three (the most interesting one for me) examines the mummy of a female temple singer to see what her life was like. There's no evidence that she used any hallucinogenic drugs, but she had parasites and arthritis and abcesses in her teeth and all kinds of stuff, which shows that it was hard to be healthy even for the upper classes. Conclusion: interesting, but I could have just watched the Discovery channel for a while instead.
This book was awesome. I like books about mummies.
