A Tale of Three Egyptian Mummies
“New Science on Ancient Livesâ€
Dr Karin Sowada, assistant curator at the Nicholson Museum, Uni of Sydney. Spoke at the Melbourne Museum last year.
*Mummies currently held by the Nicholson; had never been studied before this.
*Two have coffins; one an inscription. Curators were trying to see what they could find out from textiles etc, not just the body.
*Why mummify at all?
–probably arose through seeing natural mummification in the desert sand.
–once you start building structures for holding bodies, you remove them from the sand and heat, so you need to do it artificially.
—-But why?
–to be recognisable to the soul coming back
–be identified with Osiris
NB: mumiya = bitumen (in Arabic); in the 19th century, it was thought that bitumen was used on the mummies, because of the colour.
Mummy 1
*A very well-decorated coffin.
*Possibly priestly; has the title ‘Beloved of the God’ – not really sure what this means.
*Name is Padiashaikhet, meaning “One given by Ashaikhetâ€; a very unusual name, because Ashaikhet is a personal name, not a god. Could be some sort of debt the parents had??
*From c.720-700BC.
*Wrapped in used linens, despite signs of his obvious wealth and status.
*Nothing left in the body, not even the heart; no broken bones.
*Possibly died of dental abscesses (ouch).
Mummy 2
*Female, from c.1950BC. Her name was Meruah (sp??). Had priestly duties.
*Highly decorated coffin. People couldn’t afford big funerary houses, so coffins get the pictures usually found on the walls.
*Torso filled with something. The mummy encased in a plaster carapace! Painted red over face, green over body (for Osiris).
*But: the DNA says the body is male! Red face of carapace is the colour used for males on coffins. Shows re-use of funerary stuff? Or, possibly, that it was done by a nineteenth-century dealer….
**Huge issues over whether you can actually trust that the coffin and body match in other cases**
Mummy 3
*A child, 7-9 years old. From early second century AD, so Roman.
*No coffin accompanying the mummy. Has a painted mask. The linen wrappings were once dyed red, blue and yellow. The colours have probably faded after arriving in Sydney – was stored in a large, airy room, with lots of indirect sunlight; no knowledge of this.
*All organs removed; linen plug at the incision site. Some sort of package inside; no idea what.
*No DNA sample taken because the wrappings are so thick.
My take: this was a great lecture; it was fascinating to hear about the processes undergone to examine the mummies, as well as the sort of stuff that could be learnt. And just bizarre to think that these mummies had never really been examined before.
HTAA Conference seminars – day 3
Seminar 1
Thinking about Alexander
Sources:
–Quintus Curtius Rufus – in Penguin as The History of Alexander: lots of speeches; Roman bias against king.
–Plutarch – parallel with Julius Caesar; character more than politics
–Arrian – in Penguin as The Campaigns of Alexander; very pro-Alex.
**These are all 400+ years after his death, so they’re really secondary sources.
–Also: Lysippos: the offical court sculpture of Alex.
*Alexander:
–was a monomaniac
–was a drunkard (almost certainly)
–had a troubled childhood
–was alf-Illyrian, because of Olympias, so possibly not the best choice for king (which was elective, within the royal house)
–inherits the kingship, being hegemon (overlord of Greece, as in representative), and a huge debt to Greek moneylenders. Add in his monomania, and here are three excellent reasons for invading Persia….
My take: I love Alexander. I love the stories that have grown up around him, and the very romance of taking that many men that far. I’m not necessarily that enamored of the man himself, but that hardly matters.
HTAA Conference Keynote – day 3
John Fitzgerald: “What did Napoleon say about China? Recent trends in studies of Chinese history.
*Napoleon apparently said: “Behold the Chinese empire! Let this dragon sleep, for when it awakes the whole world will tremble.” (Or something along those lines, anyway).
** This quote has been used as the opening of two best-selling books.
*Almost no scholarship has been done on Chinese history before the 1950s – only on Americans in China, etc.
*John King Fairbank pushed the Western impact/Chinese reaction mode of Chinese history (1950s-70s), not looking at indigenous history; more on assimilation, or not.
*Paul Cohen pushed/identified trend Chinese-centred history (1980-90s). China did have pre/non-West history; also that “West” is itself problematic; Chinese-Western relations are two-way.
*Post-Cohen writings:
–China in regional and world economic history
–pre-modern Europe as similar to pre-modern China, more similar than modern China to modern Europe
–Ethnic histories of China
–History of Chinese overseas
*China/Australia:
–Morrison and Donald, both white men in China; both journos for major international papers, in late 19th-early 20th century. Morrison was also the secretary to Chiang Kai-Shek’s (sp??) wife. Both not all that well known, but they do have biographies and other remembrances.
–Who remembers the Chinese who made equal contributions to relations between China and Australia?
-William Ah Ket
-NSW Chinese Chamber of Commerce – second in establishment to the one in Hong Kong
-William Liu
-Australian department stores established in China; still there
-James See (Hsieh Tsan Tai), born Sydney. Founded first revoluntionary organisation in China! Joined with Sun Yat-sen’s group.
*Pattern of migration for China to Australia parallels Europeans to USA; about 40% returned after a while.
–“District club” – organised by people from the same regions, to organise social and often financial affairs.
–Australasian Kuomintang association was second largest outside China. They set up a Canton HQ, for Australian Chinese visiting.
–Empire Reform Association
–Chinese Masonic Association
*Turns out Napoleon did not say that about China (surprise, surprise). Probably did say something about Britain shouldn’t fight China because then China would learn its own strength, build a fleet and defeat Britain.
NB: immigration to Australia: Aust imposed a tax per head. As a direct result, women did not come because they were not commercially productive and couldn’t, therefore, repay the 10 pounds it cost to get them in.
My take: I know very, very little about Chinese history or the scholarship thereof. This guy was really interesting. It’s terrible, the little we know about the contributions of non-Europeans to Australian society.
HTAA Conference seminars – day 2
*Well Done, Those Men, be Barry Heard (sp?), a Vietnam Veteran
*Sovereign Hill, Ballarat – doing authentic learning there. Suggested topics on the Sovereign Hill website.
Seminar 1
Catering for all Learners
*Definitions: Giftedness – the potential; possession of natural ability
Talent – the use; achievement/performance beyond expectations.
*History is like… a ladder
… a compost heap
… a mirror
Teaching is one quarter good preparation;
three quarters pure theatre.
HTAA Conference Keynote – day 2
Michael Caulfield, “Capturing History”
*In telling a story – any story – you decide what to include, and therefore what to exclude.
*For a doco on the Chinese PLA, they stole videotape from China. Is this legit??
*Was the ?producer/director of Australians at War Film Archive, which interviewed men and women who had participated in all theatres of war in living memory (basically). This archive is not censored by the producers. Some stuff is on embargo, at the request of the interviewee – say until their death, or that of someone else; very few actually did this. Also, current ADF interviewees not available for 15 years. The website has photos of the interviewee at the time of war service and at time of interview, as well as some of their own photos.
My take: I heard this exact same lecture at the national conference the year before. However, seeing the footage hadn’t grown old – it’s still affective, powerful, and really interesting basically. I’d love to use this in the classroom, but I’m not sure I’ll ever have the chance.
HTAA Conference Keynote – day 1
Usual caveat applies: my notes, from the History Teachers’ Association of Australia last year.
Peter Read, on “Murder, Ignorance and Reconciliation in the Nothern Territory”
1932: 4 Japanese fishers killed by Aborigines, on a reserve. What were the Japanese doing there, when only police, missionaries and protectorate people were meant to go there?! Near Groote Eylandt.
1933: two policemen sent to arrest the Aborigines who did this. One of them was killed. Large party of police planned for retribution (to arrest the Aborigines responsible); all whites were claimed to be in danger.
NB: there were already concerns at this stage down south and even in London about frontier police, laws and judges being unjust.
*There was a huge backlash at the idea of this police party from many different protest groups. As a result, the police party is not sent.
*Missios sent to find out who killed the Japanese and Dhakiyarr, who was said to have killed McColl (the policeman), and convince them to go to Darwin. They arrive in 1934.
1934: Dhakiyarr and others are arrested. Two Aborigines claimed
to have Dhakiyarr’s confession, although they are conflicted – one said McColl was killed because he attempted to rape D’s wife, the other doesn’t mention it. Journos self-censor ad refuse to mention this bit; judge not happy at impugning of police reputation.
There’s a 3-day trial. Ends in death sentence, within 28 days. This is extended; lots of protests at it. Appeal to High Court by Chief Protector (eventually), with 24 reasons.
*D was eventually set free by the High Court, because no jury could now be found that was not biased. Was meant to be returned to his country.
*The day after this, D was put into the half-caste compound in Fannie Bay, part of Darwin… and then he disappeared. Was presumed to have gone bush. There are rumours today that he was killed by police, but there is NO mention in the archives of this idea.
2002: A letter from D’s grandsons was sent to the Chief Minister of the NT, revealing their sorrow at not having had a funeral ceremony. They then did have a ceremony – a funeral and a cleansing of those involved, including McColl’s family.
*They told the story they knew: D and family went to their island; police group landed there and chained up the women (who were possibly out foraging), made them take them to the men. D saw this, and he speared McColl – the leader.
* Why was D so worried about the consequences of the killing of the Japanese fishers? Because 21 years before this, in D’s mother’s country, police had killed several Aborigines because of the mistaken belief that they had killed a geologist.
**You need to see the big picture, to see the little picture.
My take: I really enjoyed this lecture. Despite having grown up in Darwin, I have never heard about Dhakiyarr before. Illuminating.
New Books
Mmmm, Readings’ Bargain Books. Bought three books today: Isabella, She-Wolf of France, by Alison Weir (not academic, but bound to be an interesting read); The Speckled Monster, about immunising against smallpox; and a book about Walter Raleigh, by a dude called Raleigh Trevalyan, apparently because he is a distant relative. Should be a great deal of fun.
Marlowe
Am listening to the BBC4 programme on Christopher Marlowe at the moment. I had no idea that he was born in the same year as Shakespeare. Interesting discussion on how they influenced each other – apparently Shakespeare actually quotes Marlowe somewhere, which is very cool. And Marlowe is the one who first really exemplifies blank verse and long soliloquies, taken up by Shakespeare. Very cool. I always did love Faustus.
The Vandals
Vandal, or wandali, originally means Wanderers… makes a lot of sense. I might have to go and find out more about these Eastern barbarians who moved west.
Terry Jones’ Barbarians #2
He just said ‘inevitable’! Ooh-er, tut tut, not meant to say that sort of thing in history….
I do like seeing the landscape of the place in question, in the doco: I think it’s one of the few reasons why docos can be better than books.
Randomly Yours, Alex 