Although my personal love has always been Roman history from the time of Julius Caesar, my second historical interest has always been Egypt.
Now, UCLA has spent two years working up this virtual tour of Karnak. It makes me wish I had some speed to this old clunker of a computer, but alas, I don’t think I can use the site well.
You can read a nice explanation at Science Daily about how this was accomplished. Karnak is one of the largest archaelogical sites in the world.
I grew up at a time when we mostly had slide shows. If we had the occasional “talking” school educational show, it usually the sound went out, and the film broke once or twice. It’s just amazing what is available to teachers now. I’m soooo jealous.
If you have kids, you might want to share this with them. More to the point, share it with your kids history teacher!
I haven’t brought you much science lately, but I still look over the posts most days, trying to find something of general interest.
Enjoy.
Very cool, just like the ancient Rome deal out of UVA.
Thanks for this. I got started on a major Egyptian kick a couple of years ago when the Albuquerque Museum and the New Mexico Art Museum in Santa Fe simultaneously put on shows featuring Egyptian artifacts.
Though a time of much-diminished resources, I bought two books on Hieroglyphs and learned just enough to astonish the family while examining sarcophagi (sort of at the level of, “That’s an M there. ‘Mmmmm” sound.)
And of course the Romans were not excluded. One of the more “modern” pieces in the Santa Fe show was a small carved ivory head of Caesarion, the child of Julius and Cleopatra.
I think the Egyptians fascinate because their primary remains are their funary objects. We have some notion of their mythology and ritual, and there is some historical writing and “wisdom” literature, but we don’t have as extensive or as compelling a selection of narrative, history, philosophy or poetry as left by their Greek, Roman and Hebrew neighbors. And what we see in their stylized sculpture and painting can be familiar, but also alarming in its strangeness.
FWIW, I spent time with, and enjoyed,
Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharoahs
Donald Redford, Ed., The Ancient Gods Speak: A guide to Egyptian Religion
Maria Betro, Hieroglyphics
Mark Collier, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs
and a some parts from the Egyptian stuff in Pritchard’s Ancient Near Eastern Texts
This looks fascinating. Thanks for posting it.
Amazing! I’m not a student of anything in particular, but have an abiding curiosity about almost everything. I have greatly enjoyed both fiction and non-fiction accounts of most things Egyptian. I’ve bookmarked the virtual Karnak site and will return to it as time allows. Thanks!
Rick. Oh thanks for all the links! I was in Santa Fe once, and only for a few hours. It was the most beautiful place, and the shops, and that church with the circular staircase? The oldest Catholic church in the US? Oh gosh, I would live there in a New York minute if we could afford it! I love adobe and the colors of turquoise and that adobe orange/brown. sigh….
I got to see a fair amount of Egyptian artifacts in NY at the Met. Something like 39 rooms, and a full temple with mote was reconstructed there. Amazing. Just beautiful and awe inspiring.
Pat! glad you liked it. I have read some Egyptian based fiction too. I have always liked it nearly as much as Roman based fiction. Such a strange world from what we are accustomed to.
Oops, Ruth, thanks for stopping by and glad you enjoyed the link!
Randal, glad you enjoyed as well. No naked women, sorry about that.