Registration Overrides

This message is specifically for the 3 people in my Monday night Franklin class who spoke to me last night about the financial aid office telling them to have me "permit" them into the class...

I got the registration overrides done for each of you but now you have to go in and officially register for the class. Even though the class is technically closed because it is full, the override is keyed to your specific "A" numbers (so nobody else should be able to take your slot).

If you have a problem with the registration part of it, give the office a call and somebody there should be able to help you with that.

Have a great Labor Day holiday and see you next class!

Ancient Bakery Found in Egyptian Desert

When you live in a sheltered little world like southern middle Tennessee, it's really easy to picture the area in and around the ancient Egyptian empire as one huge desert with only the occasional settlement dotting the hot, sandy landscape. It makes sense that with water being the source of life, you would find more Egyptian life close to the Nile River and for the most part, this is true. However, as time goes on and Egyptologists search the desert for clues to ancient history, we are slowly but surely learning that the desolate desert wasn't as desolate as once believed.

For the past few years, a team of archaeologists from Yale University has been working with hometown folks in Egypt to investigate what they are calling the Theban Desert Road. This is the area in Egypt to the far west of the Nile River, originally not believed to be a main thoroughfare for the ancient Egyptians.

Guess what, not true! John Coleman Darrell, leader of the Yale team, has released photos (including the one above) of an area believed to be the hub of a huge trading/caravan route through the desert. The find dates back to the Second Intermediate Period, around 1600ish B.C.

What is in the pic is the remains of a huge bakery. They have found clay molds used to form specially shaped bread as well as large ovens capable of baking multiple batches or extremely large loaves. This definitely lends credence to the belief that the area was bustling. Why in the world would you have such a magnificent bake shop in the middle of the desert if no one was there to eat the bread?

According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, aka the god of Egyptology, most of the stuff they have discovered was found in a large garbage dump on the outskirts of the area. I always tell my students, if you want to make an archaeologist hump your leg like a puppy, let him find an undiscovered garbage dump! The evidence tells the Egyptologists that in addition to the area being a Mecca for travelers and home to a fairly large number of people, it might have also been a training ground for segments of the Egyptian military.

With bread being the basic staple for people of the time period, you know that bakery was bustling. I have this mental picture of an Egyptian Buddy from Cake Boss barking orders to everybody in the bakery.

Flirting, Cleopatra-style

Sorry folks, long time no post. My summer class was fun but because it was a 5 week class, it was also a LOT of work! But I'm back with more interesting info to file away in the "in case I'm ever on Jeopardy" part of your brain.

You guys know I love Ancient Egyptian history and it seems like there's no end to the stories about Cleopatra. The chick died over a millenium ago and we still keep talking about her. Makes sense though cause duh, she's interesting!

It makes me laugh to think that flirting in the BC times was very similar to flirting today. Cleopatra was known for her love affairs, especially the one with Marc Antony. According to Pliny the Elder (if you ever study ancient history, you'll get to know this guy intimately), to impress the great general, Cleo bragged that she could consume the most expensive meal in history. She waved for a servant to bring her a goblet filled with white vinegar and proceded to drop a pearl into the goblet. Once the pearl dissolved, Cleopatra downed the liquid. Pliny said that what made the drink so expensive was the fact that it was the largest pearl ever discovered making the price of the drink 10 million sesterces.

How true was this? People have always assumed that the story was blown out of proportion by Pliny to exaggerate the wow factor of Cleopatra and Marc Antony's relationship. But classicist Prudence Jones at Montclair State University in New Jersey has proven that the drink itself could have been made. She took a Roman-sized goblet of vinegar and dissolved a 5-carat pearl in it. It wasn't very quick, actually took about 24 hours, but the pearl did ultimately break down into a shimmery layer on top of the vinegar.

Go figure. The uber-expensive flirting must have worked because Cleopatra and Marc Antony hooked up and had 3 kids.

I sort of have this mental picture of the two of them reclining on a couple of lounge chairs, Roman-style, Marc Antony making some sort of quasi-sexual comment, Cleopatra smacking him on the shoulder 5th grade flirting style. And then boom! I can run up the highest dinner tab ever. I'm assuming the idea behind it was to show how much wealth and power she had but I'm thinking that if I was a guy the only thing that would run through my head would be, "this bitch is high maintenence."