Happy 2015!

Happy Holidays!

Hatshepsut in four minutes - damnatio memoriae

Hatshepsut, the female pharoah, and the backlash after her death.

Bread and Beer:

The staples of the ancient Egypt

Just how staple?

The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with beer. -- 2200 BC inscription

[She] sent you to school when you were ready to be taught writing, and she waited for you daily at home with bread and beer. -- Instructions of Ani, regarding his mother

Most historical sources indicate workers received payments of bread, beer, grain, meat and cloth rations -- the necessities of life. Most frequently, these rations were actually expressed in units of bread and beer, which were most basic to the Egyptian diet. It is probable that the lowest wages were actually paid in bread and beer.

One might consider bread the staple of staples as it was often used to make bread. By the New Kingdom, there were names for at least 50 different kinds of bread. There were probably that many types of beer as well, although we might not recognize it as beer. It was not very intoxicating, nutritious, sweet, without bubbles, and thick, so it had to be strained with wooden syphons, used as a straw. See the following illustration.

Beer strainer

Although it's impossible to literally recreate the bread and beer recipes of Ancient Egypt, here are some educated guesses:

Baking bread from a hieroglyphic recipe

Recreating ancient Egyptian bread

Pharoah Ale: Brewing a replica of Ancient Egyptian Beer

Tutankhamun Ale Story

The Sharp Hook of Envy

First of all, I highly recommend this book.  Of course, I knew about Abélard and Heloise, but their fascinating story never really piqued my interest until I read The Sharp Hook of Love by Sherry Jones.

Second, as an aspiring novelist writing about star-crossed lovers, this book made me (no other phrase for it) green with envy. Abélard and Heloise  star in one of history’s most passionate and romantic true love stories. The affair of the 12th century philosopher and theologian and his female student, both considered to be among the most brilliant minds of their time, scandalized the community in which they lived. The consequences were both dire and transformative.

Unlike so many historical novels that seem like books about someone, Jones's tour de force puts you immediately inside Heloise's head and in her world. You might not like that world, because 12th Century France is a misogynistic, bitter world where the mix of politics and religion is volatile. (A cautionary tale?) Nonetheless, Jones, through Heloise, makes us feel, hear, taste, and smell it. The secondary characters (and even Abélard becomes almost secondary when compared to the passionate Heloise) are well-drawn  and provide even more insight into this alien (to the modern reader) world. Seeing it from Heloise's point of view, her journey is inevitable, even though you, the reader, might be screaming NO! NO! NO! Don't go there, girl friend!

The Sharp Hook of Love.  Read it. Now!

Happy Birthday, Ramses

If you go to Abu Simebel, try to go on October 22 and celebrate the birthday of Ramses the Great and see this rather phenomenal "solar" event.

Dead Egyptian Blues: Oh, Mister Tut, what good's it do?

"Oh, Mister Tut, what good's it do? 

They love your chair, but nobody cares for you. 

Egyptian nights were never colder, 

And all your friends are thousands of years older..." 

A surrealistic interpretation of the classic song by Michael Smith.