Walk Like an Egyptian
My life isn't all politics, the last several posts to the contrary. But it does seem like all I have to do is read the morning paper to find something interesting, or something that makes me blow my top. That's when I turn around and share it with you.
Well, among the various stories today was a particularly interesting one. Seems they've gotten the results from the scan of King Tutankhamun's mummy, and refuted a long-standing belief in how he met his demise. For some cool pictures and an article on this matter, see here. This is one of those instances where history comes alive, and is far more fascinating than in the textbooks. You can see this story as straight history: Tut-ankh-amun succeeded the controversial Pharoah Amen-hotep IV, aka Akhen-aten, who promoted a monotheistic religion centered around the sun god, Aten. When Tut succeeded Akhenaten, the Egyptian leadership returned to the pantheon that existed before. Tut was also fairly young, and died when he was only eighteen. Was he murdered for political reasons?
Of course, mention of murder turns this into a murder mystery. If he was murdered, who did it, and why? Historians, archaelogists, and Egyptologists have had their suspects over the years, although General Ay, who followed as pharoah after Tut, is often mentioned as a prime candidate.
Then there's medical history/immunology, and other factors. For example, Tut might have contracted a disease, and died of that. He had a broken leg, so perhaps it became infected and he died from that. Then again, the leg might have been broken when he was being mummified. Who knows? There's several different ways to look at this, which is part of what makes it so fascinating. It isn't just dates/times/places/names, it's also about how people lived, how they behaved, the politics, the environment, everything...
Technology today is amazing-- in the past, there would have been no way to do anything like this. Now with scientific advances, there are new tools to open a window on the past. The CAT scan of Tut's mummy is one example. Another is the recent excavation of Jamestown in Virginia. The historians/archaeologists working in the pits around the site of the original fort/palisade at Jamestown have found a grave that looks like it might contain the body of Bartholomew Gosnold. In order to prove this, they're going to make use of DNA. Just a generation ago, this wouldn't have been possible.
Forensic anthropologists also do a lot of work with historical remains in addition to their bread and butter, crime scenes. There's a fascinating book written by one such practitioner, William Maples. The book, _Dead Men Do Tell Tales_, is a great read. Maples provides some background on himself, what he does (or rather, did- I believe he's dead now), and then provides the history of several cases he worked on, from murders in Florida (he was affiliated with UF at Gainesville) to more notable instances, such as his work in Russia with the Romanov remains. If you have a library card and a few hours to kill, I recommend reading it. Of course, I'm sure he (or his estate) would be even more pleased if you bought it.
To me, this is the fun part of history. I've read more than my share of history books (and some are written poorly, contain lots of fancy language, and put even me to sleep), visited FAR more than my share of museums and historical sites, but it's neat to see it all come together in a way that we can all appreciate.
The news regarding Tutankhamen's bones comes at a great time, since there is going to be a huge exhibit of stuff from his tomb, the first such show since the big blockbuster show in the late 70s. My grandmother gave my dad two tickets, and we went to see it in San Francisco at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I don't remember much of the exhibit itself, but I remember the line. It stretched all the way across the grounds between the De Young and the Academy of Sciences, and I remember passing the bandshell on my way to the front door. I remember being fascinated by the funerary mask. A few years later, when I moved to New York, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art (you want to do this place, reserve at least two or three days to do it all- it's HUGE!), and saw the Temple of Dendur (or rather, what remained of it!). That was fun, as I could sort of stand at a certain angle and "pretend" I was walking in ancient Egypt. While I've never been totally fascinated by Egypt, it is quite an interesting culture, and anytime there's a big show or noteworthy museum, I'll go. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose has quite a collection of Egypt-related objects, but I think the more fascinating story here is the Rosicrucians themselves. The outside of the museum is cool though, as it's modeled on the ancient Temple at Karnak. This is definitely more interesting than the outside facade of your average museum.
A couple years back or so, there was a great exhibit in D.C. centered on Egyptian funerary practices, and they had duplicated an entire funerary chamber. It was really neat to walk around the oval-shaped room and view the wall paintings, understand the journey through the underworld, and get a more concrete sense of how Egyptian culture was so focused on death and the afterlife.
Last summer, we had just enough money to take a trip for fun, so we headed to Las Vegas for a couple days. I decided since Las Vegas is the kind of town you go to once, marvel at the neon, laugh at the phoniness of it all, then never return, that we should sample as much as possible. So instead of doing one hotel, I booked us into two for the three days, two nights we were there. We went first to Caesar's Palace, then to the Luxor. At the Luxor, they had a "museum" on Tutankhamun and Egypt, complete with fascimiles of the tombs and the like. It was actually kinda neat, and if you're ever in Vegas, you could do worse than stay at the Luxor. For one thing, it's among the cheaper set of rooms in the theme hotels, and second, you get free passes to the museum and discounts on other stuff there as well.
Now this summer and early fall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is going to host the first showing of the new Tutankhamun exhibit, and I plan to go. Tut baby, here I come...
Well, among the various stories today was a particularly interesting one. Seems they've gotten the results from the scan of King Tutankhamun's mummy, and refuted a long-standing belief in how he met his demise. For some cool pictures and an article on this matter, see here. This is one of those instances where history comes alive, and is far more fascinating than in the textbooks. You can see this story as straight history: Tut-ankh-amun succeeded the controversial Pharoah Amen-hotep IV, aka Akhen-aten, who promoted a monotheistic religion centered around the sun god, Aten. When Tut succeeded Akhenaten, the Egyptian leadership returned to the pantheon that existed before. Tut was also fairly young, and died when he was only eighteen. Was he murdered for political reasons?
Of course, mention of murder turns this into a murder mystery. If he was murdered, who did it, and why? Historians, archaelogists, and Egyptologists have had their suspects over the years, although General Ay, who followed as pharoah after Tut, is often mentioned as a prime candidate.
Then there's medical history/immunology, and other factors. For example, Tut might have contracted a disease, and died of that. He had a broken leg, so perhaps it became infected and he died from that. Then again, the leg might have been broken when he was being mummified. Who knows? There's several different ways to look at this, which is part of what makes it so fascinating. It isn't just dates/times/places/names, it's also about how people lived, how they behaved, the politics, the environment, everything...
Technology today is amazing-- in the past, there would have been no way to do anything like this. Now with scientific advances, there are new tools to open a window on the past. The CAT scan of Tut's mummy is one example. Another is the recent excavation of Jamestown in Virginia. The historians/archaeologists working in the pits around the site of the original fort/palisade at Jamestown have found a grave that looks like it might contain the body of Bartholomew Gosnold. In order to prove this, they're going to make use of DNA. Just a generation ago, this wouldn't have been possible.
Forensic anthropologists also do a lot of work with historical remains in addition to their bread and butter, crime scenes. There's a fascinating book written by one such practitioner, William Maples. The book, _Dead Men Do Tell Tales_, is a great read. Maples provides some background on himself, what he does (or rather, did- I believe he's dead now), and then provides the history of several cases he worked on, from murders in Florida (he was affiliated with UF at Gainesville) to more notable instances, such as his work in Russia with the Romanov remains. If you have a library card and a few hours to kill, I recommend reading it. Of course, I'm sure he (or his estate) would be even more pleased if you bought it.
To me, this is the fun part of history. I've read more than my share of history books (and some are written poorly, contain lots of fancy language, and put even me to sleep), visited FAR more than my share of museums and historical sites, but it's neat to see it all come together in a way that we can all appreciate.
The news regarding Tutankhamen's bones comes at a great time, since there is going to be a huge exhibit of stuff from his tomb, the first such show since the big blockbuster show in the late 70s. My grandmother gave my dad two tickets, and we went to see it in San Francisco at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. I don't remember much of the exhibit itself, but I remember the line. It stretched all the way across the grounds between the De Young and the Academy of Sciences, and I remember passing the bandshell on my way to the front door. I remember being fascinated by the funerary mask. A few years later, when I moved to New York, I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art (you want to do this place, reserve at least two or three days to do it all- it's HUGE!), and saw the Temple of Dendur (or rather, what remained of it!). That was fun, as I could sort of stand at a certain angle and "pretend" I was walking in ancient Egypt. While I've never been totally fascinated by Egypt, it is quite an interesting culture, and anytime there's a big show or noteworthy museum, I'll go. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose has quite a collection of Egypt-related objects, but I think the more fascinating story here is the Rosicrucians themselves. The outside of the museum is cool though, as it's modeled on the ancient Temple at Karnak. This is definitely more interesting than the outside facade of your average museum.
A couple years back or so, there was a great exhibit in D.C. centered on Egyptian funerary practices, and they had duplicated an entire funerary chamber. It was really neat to walk around the oval-shaped room and view the wall paintings, understand the journey through the underworld, and get a more concrete sense of how Egyptian culture was so focused on death and the afterlife.
Last summer, we had just enough money to take a trip for fun, so we headed to Las Vegas for a couple days. I decided since Las Vegas is the kind of town you go to once, marvel at the neon, laugh at the phoniness of it all, then never return, that we should sample as much as possible. So instead of doing one hotel, I booked us into two for the three days, two nights we were there. We went first to Caesar's Palace, then to the Luxor. At the Luxor, they had a "museum" on Tutankhamun and Egypt, complete with fascimiles of the tombs and the like. It was actually kinda neat, and if you're ever in Vegas, you could do worse than stay at the Luxor. For one thing, it's among the cheaper set of rooms in the theme hotels, and second, you get free passes to the museum and discounts on other stuff there as well.
Now this summer and early fall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is going to host the first showing of the new Tutankhamun exhibit, and I plan to go. Tut baby, here I come...
posted by Mr. Sandman | 9:35 PM
<< Home