this research has led me to the pub
Tuesday 12 February 2008
Things have been moving slow in the land of research. I'm attempting to work without the oomph to do so. Plus I haven't been going into the office as I'm trying to avoid my soon to be ex-supervisor. He's been on my tail lately - wanting to meet - but I don't ever want to have to sit down with him again! Some of you know that I have had a rather rough start in the grand adventure that is the PhD. My supervisor in as little as 2.5 months whittled me down until I was a self-loathing blubbering idiot who seriously considered packing it up and catching the next flight home. He has no interest in me as a person, my future or my project as is evident from questions and remarks such as: "What are you doing again?" or "Remind me what it is you're doing". He has terrible people skills and I swear gets off on putting students down. I have never been so demoralized in my life! Fortunately I'm not the only one he treats like this but unfortunately unlike others my skin is not as thick and I absolutely refuse to go on like this. I'll get nothing done and fail miserably. But that should all change soon inshallah. I met with the faculty head and laid it all out on the table and received an apology and an agreement to change supervisors. I've decided not to submit a formal complaint cause you never know if these sorts of things can come back and bite you in the ass. So we've decided to stick to the story that since my project has changed (because the jerk pretty much said I was too stupid to do what I wanted to do - but that's fine cause I like my new project) and no longer falls under my current supervisor's area of interest it would be beneficial (and absolutely necessary) to change supervisors.
My goal this week is to work out a schedule and a plan of action to get cracking - something I really should have done on day 1 but I had no direction. It wasn't until recently that I was even sure of what I wanted to do - but now I know and now I've got to collect data and work my way through it all.
The Hathor Chapel at Deir el-Bahri: The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
What am I doing? Well since I'm currently working with the UAEE on the mortuary temple of Tausert and have been given permission from the director to use data from our excavation (a rare treat) I've decided to look at the development of the mortuary temple on the west bank of Thebes. These would be the temples built from the beginning of the 18th Dynasty starting with Ahmose to the end of the 20th Dynasty ending with Ramses XI - that's a lot of temples to look at! But luckily not all of the pharaohs in that time frame built on the west bank and not all those who did have any material remaining other than the random stamped mud brick. Quite a few of the mortuary temples - like the one I work on - are poorly preserved and all that remains are their foundations. I want to understand how the mortuary temple evolved from the pyramid temples and valley temples of the Old and Middle Kingdoms as well as studying their development over 400+ years on the west bank. Why were certain rooms and suites expanded, what are their functions, who used them, etc. This requires studying the architecture and decoration of the temples that remain standing as well as the archaeological material (stelae, statues, pottery, etc.). In the case of the temple of Tausert and other temples whose foundations are all that remains I have the opportunity of studying the architectural and archaeological clues that lie beneath the temple walls which may help to indicate the use and purpose of certain rooms. So there is definitely lots to do and lots of excavation reports to dig through - unfortunately quite a bit of these were published in German which takes me ever so long to translate.
The second court at Medinet Habu: The Mortuary Temple of Ramses III
I'm slowly getting back into the habit of reading (for pleasure). I can't believe I've read so few books so far this year! It is so unlike me! We're almost half way through February and I've only read 3 books this year!!! I finished reading Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster over the weekend. I really enjoyed it - it was scandalous but a simple tragedy that caused two of the characters to grow, albeit a quick growth since the book is only 135 pgs. That's one checked off the 888 Challenge. Looking back over the books I read in 2007 I realized that not many of them were recent publications due mostly to my obsession to tackle the 1001 books.... So I've decided to jump on The Pub bandwagon. 8 adult books (after all, we are in The Pub) published in 2008. Now I need to make my choices...
I had a good weekend. Still trying to tackle this sinus infection but I went out Friday night with a group to celebrate one of our friend's who just submitted his thesis. Glad to know that it is possible to finish! We went to The Fly in the Loaf a nice pub that used to be a bakery but now serves specialty beers. I'm not a big beer person but I sure do love the cherry beer I'm able to get here. Saturday night went over to another friend's house to celebrate a belated Burns Night - an ode to a famous Scottish bard. It was a great night full of kilts, reciting Burns, whiskey, and having my very first taste of haggis - it was really good but I have to try desperately not to think about what it's made of...
Anyway hope everyone has a nice week! Now I'm off to read!
. listening . freak on a leash . korn . follow the leader .
posted by Ashleigh @ 20:14,
1 Comments:
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At 13 February 2008 at 01:42,
said...
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The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley...
