bon voyage
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Oh gosh I had planned to get some reviews out and time just flew away! You know how it is a few days before you leave anywhere, chaos! So much to do! I'm off to London in the morning and then flying to Rhodes tomorrow night. I won't be back in the 'Pool until June 5th. I'm sure I'll be able to track down a wireless signal somewhere on the island so I'll try to check in and depending on the signal and the speed of connection I may load a few photos. But just in case I don't pop in I hope everyone enjoys the rest of May and is prepared for a fantastic summer!
Oh and in case you're curious, I'm going to Rhodes for the Xth International Congress of Egyptologists - over 300+ speakers will be giving lectures from May 22-29. I'm going a week early and staying a week after in order to have a nice holiday. I may go island hopping or I might just pop a squat on the beach and read until I'm nice and crispy.
I was at a BBQ over the weekend to welcome 2 new Drs of Egyptology to the world. It was great! Although typical to an English BBQ we ended up inside when a thunderstorm hit (yes people real thunder and even some scary lightning! - but NOTHING compared to what we get in AZ). Below is a picture of a wee little man I found hanging out in my friend's garden. Apparently he was there when they moved in and so they just left him there. Seems like he's been there for awhile since his pants have nearly disintegrated! Ha! Ha! He's really roughin' it! Love the beard!
Ciao!
. listening . la camisa negra . juanes . mi sangre .
posted by Ashleigh @ 22:41,
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enchant me please
Thursday, 1 May 2008
I've been searching for some enchantment, a.k.a. I've been wanting some new books. I did manage to snag Salman Rushdie's new novel, The Enchantress of Florence today along with a copy of Jeanette Winterson's The Passion (which by the way according to the author's website Miramax just bought the rights to and Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliette Binoche have signed). But before I can get any more new books I seriously need to finish everything listed to the right save for I, Robot and Timbuktu, those are checked out from the uni and aren't due till July. I actually need to read all those books if possible by the end of next week, because if all goes well I'm supposed to be leaving for London next Saturday but am definitely leaving for Rhodes the following Wednesday. I'd like to get caught up on my reviews too before I leave... lots to do!
But first, back to that book coveting...There are many others which hopefully will be read all in good time. Something else I've been thinking a lot about is Paris. Not just because I recently finished Les Misérables but because there's just so much I want to see there. So many things to do, like sit at the little café next to Notre Dame and read Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Could you imagine? Sitting there sipping a latté reading The Hunchback in the shadows of Notre Dame? And then entering the cathedral and climbing to the top to look out over Paris? I've got a copy of the book, I just need tickets... and I'm seriously thinking about going before I leave. I actually took the picture featured at the beginning of this post from the top of Notre Dame when I was there in 2005. Unfortunately it's the only one I have at the moment, I found it floating around my flickr page, must have been going to use it as a headliner for my blog at one point. The hundreds of other photos I took are on a disc at home.
I'd like to spend a good week there, visiting the Louvre. On my previous visit half the Egyptology exhibit was closed so that right there is a major reason to return. I want to read in the Jardin du Luxembourg, walk along the Champs-Élysées, return to Père Lachaise and visit all those graves I managed to miss the first time. Can you believe it I did not kiss the tombstone of Oscar Wilde? But not to worry I'll pack my brightest red lipstick and see that the deed is done. Though I did pay my respects to Jean-François Champollion, the man who translated the Rosetta Stone and thus led to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. I never did to make it out to Versailles and I so wanted to and I also managed to miss the Panthéon where Voltiare, Rousseau, Emilé Zola, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas lie among many others.
Thinking about Paris, makes me think of what other books I might like to read while there. Perhaps Henry Miller's scandalous Tropic of Cancer which was banned both in the UK and the US for 30 years after its publication. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice, Michael Musmanno wrote, "Cancer is not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity". Hmmmm... could be fun, no?
. listening . if you were there, beware . arctic monkeys . favourite worst nightmare .
posted by Ashleigh @ 12:33,
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i'm going to the island
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Beach near Lindos - Rhodes, Greece (Photo by: Markus Wichmann)
Agghhhh! I did it I booked my tickets! I'm so excited! From May 14th until June 4th I'll be spending three glorious weeks on the island of Rhodes where I'll be visiting ancient Greek sites and medieval cities, spending long hours on the beach reading and sipping cocktails and rubbing elbows with the greats of Egyptology. I simply could not justify this type of holiday without having an academic excuse - so this is not all about working on my tan. Rhodes is hosting the Xth International Congress of Egyptologists from May 22-29. It should be very interesting and very scholarly! Some of my colleagues are giving papers, I unfortunately am not - it's too soon for me to speak at such a prestigious conference about research I've only just begun. I hope to give a paper at the next conference in 2012 - yes like the Olympics we only meet every 4 years - but at least by then I should be Dr. Ashleigh (inshallah!) and should definitely know what I'm talking about! There are going to be some great keynote speakers I'm especially looking forward to finally hearing Jan Assmann give a paper - I love his theological approaches to Egyptian religion. I love his book The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. I'm super excited and it's such a relief to have plans to go somewhere. I tend to get a bit fidgety and feel trapped if I can't escape wherever I happen to be.
Oi! I've got two months to get my ass in shape! Hmmm... I wonder what books I should pack?
. listening . coconut skins . damien rice . 9 .
posted by Ashleigh @ 19:11,
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egypt 2008 : pharaoh's curse or pharaoh's gold
Saturday, 2 February 2008
The title alludes to the fact that I'm not sure if this season was cursed or blessed or perhaps both. So before I delve into this season's adventures I've decided to get all the complaining out of the way. So if you want to skip all that just scroll down. Here is a list of the things that sucked this season:
1 : Being sick - practically the entire time, nose like a faucet, sore throat, coughing (major hacking), can you bruise your trachea? well it felt like it - it was so swollen and painful to the slightest touch, headaches, muscle aches. Frankly it was a miracle I lived through it all.
2 - 5 : EDITED (because I'm just a big complainer... but people seriously get on my nerves sometimes...)
6 : Missing the opportunity to have cocktails with eminent Egyptologist, Kent Weeks and his wife Susan. Kent came out to our site and I did get to shake his hand and chatted a bit. It was a dream come true I've wanted to meet this man for like 10 years now. We arranged to have cocktails at The Winter Palace the following Tuesday and when I arrived the reception desk wouldn't let me in because I was wearing jeans. Other than my dig pants all I had were jeans. They were very clean, it was the first time I was wearing them there and I had a very nice blouse on but they wouldn't give. I've never heard of a place in Egypt where you can't wear jeans. My flatmate suggested I wear her black pants so I walked back to the flat but the only black pants I could find were wet and hanging to dry. I was crushed! I think I cried for like an hour - hey this was a dream people! I was so upset because we could have moved our little cocktail party to the Nile Terrace of the hotel where jeans are allowed. But Wilkinson assures me that I have only delayed the inevitable. The Weeks' will be in town when we return and they have invited us to have dinner on their dahabeeyah (houseboat on the Nile). Sigh.
Basically a big ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!
Ok on to the good stuff! :)
Our workmen add buckets of excess dirt to our ever growing pile.
Now I can't give away too much here but once the final report has been published I can share all. (Reports from our previous seasons can be found on our website : University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition.) Our goal this year was to locate the back of the temple so that we could determine how many seasons we will need to finish the project. So the far south and far north trenches (TA1 and TA14 respectively) were pushed back. By the end of the season we may have reached the back of the temple in TA1 but have yet to reach the end in TA14 this is because many good things were being uncovered in this trench. MANY GOOD THINGS!!! One of the center trenches was also excavated.
Once the many good things started being unearthed I realized that I'm a bit bored of running the total station. It was a job that I took over in 2005 because I knew that it would make me a necessary team member and gave me the guarantee that I would be invited back each year. Don't get me wrong I love doing the mapping but archaeology is my true love and I so desperately wanted to get down into the trench and oversee and remove certain things. I was given the opportunity to do so a couple of times and this confirmed that in the trench was where I needed to be. So I discussed this with Wilkinson as he's always been very good about making sure I'm given opportunities to do and learn whatever I want. So next year another student will be brought out to run the total station but as I am the Director of Mapping I will basically be instructing them while running a trench. And I will still be responsible for doing the Auto CAD from the data collected. This makes me very happy!
I also received a promotion! As of next season I am now an Associate Director instead of an Assistant Director. What does this mean? Well I'm right below Wilkinson and there are only 4 Associate Directors (myself included) and we are all in that position because we are advanced students who are in the process of completing or have completed their PhDs (save for one who is a unique case). This makes me even happier! *edited Apr 11 2008 to say: since I have decided to finish my degree back at the UofA or effectively 'start over' the promotion will have to be delayed until I am a year or two into the program since it is only for students who are finished or are nearly finished with their PhDs. Zut! But I'm still Assistant Director!
Looking northeast across the site - these units were uncovered last season and show some of the foundation stones we found in situ.
I also got around to discussing my future career with Wilkinson. We talked about publication and speaking at conferences - two things that I'm working on. I definitely plan on giving a paper at least two conferences next year and have outlined some ideas for articles. But Wilkinson tells me that what looks better than submitting work to be published is being asked to write something. So... Wilkinson has asked me to contribute a chapter to the book he will be publishing on Tausert!!!! Holy cow!!!! I was so totally floored by this! He's also asked me to help in the production of a CLASSIFIED PROJECT. This makes me the happiest person alive!
Our expedition is also growing in prestige as we continue to recruit experts from the field. We now how have R.J. Demarée from Leiden University working for us as our official hieraticist. He's been helping us in the translations of any hieratic material we've found. And just recently it has been announced that Elena Pischikova from the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be joining forces with us. Elena has been working across the way from us in the hills of Southern Assasif in the tombs of Irtieru (TT390), Karabasken (TT391) and Karakhamun (TT223). These tombs date to the Late Period around the 25th Dynasty. Elena and her team have done a lot the recovery and restoration of these tombs - it is simply magnificent. Being teamed up with Elena means that we (being the students) will have the opportunity to work with Elena in these tombs where she has generously offered to teach us field conservation techniques. This is the icing on the cake!
So petty people, illness and the damn Winter Palace aside it was a great season!
Working in the winter was a lot nicer than the summer - the weather was perfect! We even got to experience a bizarre storm - it sprinkled on and off for a couple of days and then poured for an entire day. Apparently this only happens every 10 years or so. The only downfall of a winter season is that the kids are in school so I didn't get to see as much of them as I usually do. Plus last summer we spent a lot of time at the pool but it's too cold for swimming in the winter. We did get to celebrate Amira's birthday though and that was fun - Amira is the oldest daughter of our Reis (reis means chief or in the case of archaeology chief foreman), Ali. Next year I'll just have to make sure I get over to their house more often or get Amira out so we can hang out together. We love getting together to give each other manicures!
A beautifully inscribed and graffitied wall out in the Wadi Hammamat.
We only took one side trip this year and we decided to trek out into the eastern desert to Wadi Hammamat. This was the location of an ancient quarry used throughout Egyptian history, from predynastic (roughly 3100 BC) as is seen from the "primitive" rock art and images of predynastic boats to Roman times as evidenced by the remains of Roman forts at the tops of hills. We explored a lot of the area hunting for hieroglyphic texts as well as vivid scenes. It was truely magical and extraordinary. We even came across sarcophagai that were being manufactured but they were abandoned due to damage. A lot of the ancient inscriptions are unique because the people working these quarries probably had more freedom to say what they wanted to say without retribution from the throne. Although quite a few of them are nice inscriptions where an individual is shown giving praise to various gods, pharaoh or even the cartouches of the pharaoh; some of the inscriptions show individuals writing their own names in cartouches! The graffiti is amazing too and is written in hieroglyphs, hieratic, Coptic, Greek, Arabic (one I found dating to 1946) and English (dating to the late 1800s). I'd like to visit this site again sometime in the future because there is so much more to see.
Hatshepsut (Maatkare Khnumt-Amun Hatshepsut : Truth is the Ka of Re Joined with Amun Foremost of Noble Ladies) prepares an offering table in her Red Chapel at Karnak.
I also visited the usual : Luxor Temple (this time at night), Karnak Temple (check out the photos for behind the scenes shots of the Roman Baths currently being excavated), Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri - then hiked up and over and down into the Valley of the Kings where I got to enter Tutankhamun's tomb (again for free!) but this time it was extra special because his mummy is now on display. Wow he looks great! Well really the mummification job isn't the best and his remains were poorly treated when he was originally removed by Carter's team - in fact they hacked him into pieces! But he is now nicely displayed in an air controlled box and he is covered by a linen sheet and only his face and feet are visible. It was amazing to see his face in person, a face that I've been looking at in books and magazines since I was a small child. I also got to visit the pyramids at Giza - I hadn't been out to see them since my first year in Egypt. It was neat we went in the late afternoon so we got to watch the sun start to set behind the pyramids. And of course I visited the Cairo Museum.
Well that's Season 4 in Egypt in a nutshell - good times and bad times but I survived and I have a really good feeling that next year is going to be the best! Inshallah! Now follow this link to check out the 150 photos I uploaded. Click on the album Egypt 2008 so you can view the photos in order. I took the time to add a description to each one so I hope you enjoy!
The Pyramid of Menkaure at sunset.
posted by Ashleigh @ 15:14,
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warmer sands in ancient lands
Saturday, 5 January 2008
I am in Egypt right now - for my fourth season with the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition. I'm going to try to blog while I'm away but be warned that everything here works on Egyptian time (and for those who don't know what that means - it simply means when it happens it happens - there is no rush). I am so loving the warmer weather right now!
posted by Ashleigh @ 14:07,
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