Me Personal Music Quotes
Today’s Egypt post comes from the Maydoum pyramid.
I can’t honestly say I had the best time at this site. They Pyramid itself was pretty cool and you had to go up a series of rickety wooden steps just to get to the entrance. From there you got a great view of the mastabas and tombs to the left of the Pyramid (built up from an Old Kingdom sun temple). The problem I had was entering the Pyramid itself. It’s a 57 metre steep slope with only boards that had ruts to aid your descent. Now I am petrified of unfamiliar stairs and walking down them (Climacophobia) I know it’s irrational but it scares the bejeezus out of me. So I decided I wouldn’t go in. Turns out I didn’t have a choice and was forced into the pyramid by another member of the group who was decidedly unimpressed with my hysterical crying. Serves her right.
Inside smelled mostly of ammonia. Yay Bat pee!! There was a rickety wooden ladder to get into the main chamber (the Egyptians have clearly never heard of Health and Safety and it’s great!). Crowding all 20 of us into this very small chamber was probably not the best idea but it was great fun to play change places like sardines trying to get out. After that we had a 57m steep climb back up and out. I didn’t feel my legs for 2 days afterwards and when I finally felt them I really wished I couldn’t.
The mastabas were pretty cool. Most of us didn’t actually get to go into many as the tunnels were small and there just wasn’t enough room for us all. They were definitely the definition of rabbit warrens though. Some parts could only be reached by ladders.
Maydoum: Pyramids smell like Bat pee and never underestimate the pain of pyramid leg.
A rare early 18th century Memento Mori band gold known as a skeletal, as the whole length of the skeleton is employed on the outside of the hoop, with other emblems. The earliest known example is dated 1659. This ring is enamelled in black with a full skeleton, twin hearts for love and an hourglass, symbolic of the passage of time and the brevity of life.
(via seafeel)
Plastic face protection from the snow, Montreal, 1939.
Nationaal Archief
lol what
(via sobredosisdecafeina)
I’m proud to have been part of this project in its early stages (1999-2001), back when I was a graduate student in Boston. Kudos to Peter!
The most realistic and complete virtual rendition of Egypt’s Giza Plateau is now available online, allowing anyone with a computer to wander the necropolis, explore shafts and burial chambers, and enter four of the site’s ancient temples, including Khufu’s and Menkaure’s pyramids.
Engineered by software design firm Dassault Systèmes, in collaboration with Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the free application is available on multiple devices, including 3-D-enabled computer monitors and TVs, and immersive environments.
Indeed, this is not just another too-clean looking and ultimately boring 3-D virtual tour of Egypt’s famous archaeological site.
“Many 3-D models of ancient sites have more to do with fantasy and video games than with archaeology. The colors, surfaces and textures are not researched and appear quite flat or unrealistic,” Peter Der Manuelian, Philip J. King professor of Egyptology at Harvard University and director of the MFA’s Giza Archives, told Discovery News.
According to Manuelian, Giza 3D focuses on reality and reproduces one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World on sound scholarly data.
“Our reconstructions strive to reflect as much existing excavation data as possible, and that includes a meticulous study of ancient colors, inscriptions, textures of walls, buildings and objects,” Manuelian said.
The project draws on the work of George Andrew Reisner (1867-1942), an American Egyptologist who directed the work of the Harvard University—Museum of Fine Arts Boston Expedition at the Giza Plateau more than a century ago.
This is pretty amazing.
Sickle Sword
- Period: Middle Assyrian
- Date: ca. 1307–1275 B.C.
- Geography: Northern Mesopotamia
- Culture: Assyrian
- Medium: Bronze Dimensions: L. 54.3 cm
- Classification: Metalwork-Implement, Inscribed
This curved sword bears the cuneiform inscription “Palace of Adad-nirari, king of the universe, son of Arik-den-ili, king of Assyria, son of Enlil-nirari, king of Assyria”, indicating that it was the property of the Middle Assyrian king Adad-nirari I (r. 1307–1275 B.C.).
The inscription appears in three places on the sword: on both sides of the blade and along its (noncutting) edge. Also on both sides of the blade is an engraving of an antelope reclining on some sort of platform.
Source & Copyright: Metropolitan Museum of Art
” …before he goes to America, Freud has lunch in Bremen, on the eve of his departure to America, with Jung and Ferenczi, and they have this wonderful meal of salmon and some nice wine, and at a certain point, Jung begins talking about some mummified corpses that they’ve found nearby, and Freud becomes more and more upset, and finally he’s saying, you can hear Jung like an early Hitchcock film, where the sound on the word ‘murder’ amplifies more and more, it’s like ‘Mordleichen, mordleichen,’ and Freud finally says, ‘What is it with you and the corpses?’ And then he passes out. And he does this again a few years later in a similar situation, and this time, waking in Jung’s arms—that time, I should say, that he wakes right next to Jung, who quips at the moment when Freud awakes, ‘From this point onward, we’ll pay for Papa.’ Implying that the lunch had been on Freud’s bill and that this had made him pass out. But he passes out again, and I think part of what was so remarkable reading the lives of these people, and trying to cut through a lot of the ideological armature that’s been shoved or scooped in more like in layers over these people was just how much they were able to express physically. I mean, can you imagine having a close friendship with another man, an obsession with another man, which makes you actually faint in public more than once?”
—George Prochnik in conversation with Wayne Koestenbaum, November 18, 2006 for “A Double Celebration: The Atlantic & Sigmund Freud @ 150, featuring George Prochnik and Wayne Koestenbaum”
Happy Birthday, Freud!
(via mitologiasvivas)
Lina Medina is the youngest confirmed mother in medical history having given birth at the age of five years, seven months and 17 days.
Her parents, who assumed their daughter had a tumour, took her to a hospital, where she was determined to be seven months pregnant. Although Medina’s father was arrested on suspicion of child abuse, he was later released due to lack of evidence, and the identity of the biological father who impregnated Medina was never uncovered.
(via priestswhore)
In honor of Howard Carter’s 138th birthday, a link to the Griffith’s institute online catalogue of the content of Tutankhamun’s tomb, many with pictures of objects who don’t always make it into books, as they are not as glamourous as gold.
Pictured above, a red painted pottery vase, photo by Harry Burton.
My ancient egyptian geekness is showing.
Gilt and jewel encrusted Mughal Sword (1700)
An outstanding Mughal sword with a hilt covered in rubies.
Source & Copyright: Curator’s Eyes
