SPQR Blues et cetera

Me, I think he thinks he's Indy. Or Brendan Fraser. Or, wants us to think he's dashing, cool, and swinging from ropes into dark pits full of animated mummies.

Oh well, I wear a lot of hats, too, and sometimes think I'm Indy, but only Raiders Indy.

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ajodasso.livejournal.com

Well, true - it's clear he wants to project an Image, whatever that image may be *G* I agree with you on Raiders; that's about the only film in that series I think is super-cool.

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Im ust confess I've got a weak spot for Sean Connery in "Last Crusade"
- Genius of the res-to-ration.
- Aid our own re-sus-ci-tation.

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Is that why he talks like everyone but him is a blithering moron?

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purvision.livejournal.com

I echo your concern about Zahi Hawass. He and PT Barnum would have gotten along great.

I don't have a lot of hope there will be a real find undisturbed by graverobbers after 2040 years. And Antony is not likely to be in the same place anyway.

Still, it's a fun thought and the sort of thing that drives interest and encourages funding of digs.

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Your attitude is much healthier than mine. I look at Hawass the showman and think, I'm glad you're drumming up interest, but stick to reality and get your sticky hands off the mummies, man! then I despair. But if Egyptology is considered thoroughly cool, then there's more work for all the archaeologists and excavators and support staff and documentarians and curators and children's book authors and scholars in ivy-covered halls and, uhm, webcomics artists, and some of those folks will be telling the real story, such as we know it. Maybe not the webcomics artists :)

From: (Anonymous)

Oh I agree on both points- Hawass is a grubby pig, yeah he gets the interest drummed up- but he also hogs all the credit for other archaeologists work! That's what pisses me off. I saw the program where this team worked for years and found and identified Hapshepsut's lost mummy, and after all their painstaking work he swooped in in the last two weeks and tromped all over everything. Didn't piss me off any less that one of the main archaeologists was a woman and he wouldn't look at her, talk to her or let her even be in the room while He opened the sarchophagas and he schmoozed at the camera. (fume fume fume)

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I seem to recall some nonsensical statements from him about which mummies had to be royal on account of how nice-looking they were, and how another mummy couldn't possibly be royal, on account of it wasn't pretty and svelte enough to be a queen, yet he didn't seem to notice the irony when his assumptions turned out to be completely incorrect. Sounds like his inability to share the spotlight is compounded by a problem with female scientists (and queens with big noses?), as if I didn't already have enough reason not to like him.

He's such an easy target for parody.

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I thought I'd heard that Cleopatra's mummy had been brought in France by Napoleon ? And lost, or burned, later in history ? Or is that a legend ?

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I've heard a lot more rumours about Alexander's mummy than Cleopatra's. I've never heard a story about Cleopatra's mummy and Napoleon. Can you tell us more?

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I'll have to search for more details, but here is (in French) a text by someone who says he read the story in an old issue of the French "Historia" magazine.

In short, around 1805-1810, following Bonaparte's Egypt campaign, the deciphering of Rosette's stone by Champollion, and the interest it brought in France for Egypt, some archaeologists brought to France a mummy they claimed was Cleopatra's. The story does not tell were they found it. It was brought to the Louvre Museum, where the director decided to have it unwrapped. That proved to be a bad idea, since the moisture then caused the mummy to start rotting, and you can imagine the smell... So the director asked the gardener to dispose of the corpse, and so it happened that the mummy was buried in one of the Louvre Gardens.

Some time passes, and in 1830 violent riots erupts in Paris and are repressed by the army (you've read "Les Misérables", right ?), and it escalates into a civil war, with lots of killed. It is the July revolution, also called "les trois glorieuses" (the three glorious days) and and it drives King Charles X out of power. Some of the dead are hastily buried in the same garden at the Louvre.

In 1948, the authorities decided to erect a monument to commemorate the dead of the July revolution. Their remains are quickly dug out from all the places where had been buried in Paris, Including the Louvre Gardens, to be placed under the new monument (la Colonne de Juillet, better known today as "colonne de la Bastille"), and in the haste, Cleopatra's bones are taken along. When someone finally remembers she was even there, it's too late !

So Cleopatra is now keeping company to 815 French revolutionaries Place de la Bastille in Paris. Or so the story goes.

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Given the growing craze at the time for all things Egyptian, I'm not surprised someone would claim to have Cleopatra's mummy (imagine the fame and fortune and news coverage). It would be interesting to find out more about what evidence the claim was based on, and more about the people who made the claim.

In fact, this story has just enough cool and history and yuck-factor to make a pretty awesome graphic novel script. Maybe as part of a longer graphic novel about historical/archaeological claims that might or might not be hoaxes but might be too far lost in history to prove. The fellow who claimed he fell down a hole and came face to face with Alexander's mummy would be along those lines. All the other historical things people claimed to have found, then lost, recent or ancient.

Someone should totally write up the Cleopatra's Bones story and submit it along with a proposal with other topics to... oh... someone...

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...to a publisher who specializes in children graphic novels and school books ?

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Yes, that would be a possible someone XD

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kit-the-brave.livejournal.com

I can attest that such a graphic novel would be wildly popular at the liberry. It would be one of those books that cause the moms to come up to me and whisper, "These are all he wants to read, and I don't know why!" To which I respond, "Because they're awesome!"

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I totally intend to goad someone into sending me a proposal :D

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kyleen66.livejournal.com

Heh.

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galingale.livejournal.com

Ooo and you can guarantee NYC sales by tying in Cleopatra's Needle too .

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My instincts say this book could have legs, I tell you, legs! I just need someone else to write it while I sit back and watch ;)

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Now here's a totally different version (this one, as it seems, was found in a comics magazine called "A Suivre") :

Bonaparte brings Cleo's mummy from Egypt himself and she's displayed at the "Bibliothèque Nationale" (national library), where she stays until 1871, when the "Commune de Paris" takes place. For fear of destruction, she's moved to the basement of the building, but then moisture gets to her, and she starts decomposing quickly. As a result she's buried under a flowerbed in the main court of the Library.

In the 1960's, when extensions are build around the librabry, she's for some unclear reasons dug out to be burned in the building's boiler...

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And here is an excerpt from said comics magazine from 1982, reproducing a newspaper article from 1945, showing the aforementioned flowerbed.

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ladyqkat.livejournal.com

Wish #2: That the news outlets would stop arguing about whether Cleopatra was pretty or not. Of course, that's the only measure of a woman's worth and the only reason why two of the most powerful men in the world of her day found her a worthy partner. Hawass, stop talking about the size of her nose.

Standards of beauty change fairly quickly. What was considered beautiful even 50 years ago (Marilyn Monroe) is considered fat and blowsy by today's standards. They are even trying to "thin down" the Ruben's models.

Maybe someday they will again start touting beauty as that which a person draws from within rather than that which is exposed to all and sundry.

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I keep hoping so. But the ladies in Hollywood keep getting thinner and thinner...

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ladyqkat.livejournal.com

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com

Yeah, they should stop talking about her nose and draw it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Asterixcover-6.jpg

Uderzo and Goscinny knew how to do things.

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I've always wanted to a comic, maybe a short story, set during Cleopatra's era. Maybe that'll be next :D

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xanath.livejournal.com

Wish #2: That the news outlets would stop arguing about whether Cleopatra was pretty or not. Of course, that's the only measure of a woman's worth and the only reason why two of the most powerful men in the world of her day found her a worthy partner. Hawass, stop talking about the size of her nose.

You may remember the comic-book-like documentary on Nefertiti that aired on the Discovery channel a few years back. Zawass went after the young American archeologist who claimed to have found Nefertiti's mummy as just a publicity hound. It wasn't until I read up on Hawass's PR methods that I realized that not only was the pot calling the kettle black, the pot was blind to begin with. Yeesh.

As for Cleopatra, I was always amazed by the fact that she spoke several languages fluently, kept both Caesar and Antony intensely interested in her, and held the Romans at bay to, literally, the bitter end. And her suicide always makes me smile. She couldn't have told Octavian to stuff it better than if she'd died making a particularly pungent gesture.

So . . . pompous showman discovers ancient queen's tomb. I don't know if I'm the only one dreading the rush of bad documentaries (complete with cartoonish "re-enactments") and even worse movies. I'll be over here clinging to my Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra, thanks.

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palusbuteo.livejournal.com

Yeaaahh....

Movies and other silly things. Much like Roman stuff, people can't help but make gigantic cheese-fests with major slaps-in-the-faces of archaeological and academic research on what the Romans were doing or looked like, et cetera....But it's a nessesary evil, it drums up attention.

But, I too would like to see a [steadier] hand of Hawass groping mummies and claiming this and claiming that. That whole Nefertiti thing I think was embarrasing and downright insulting. There is SOOOO much stuff to discover and uncover, Hawass, let someone ELSE have a little glory now and again, there is plenty to go around.

Cleo is indeed totally enthralling, regardless of how "good looking" she may have been, and yeah, ideals of beauty are going to change...But if the stories are true about her intelligence, then that makes her pretty awesome in my mind. I mean, really, she got a "Roman's Roman" under her thumb and making Octavian get all bitchy and civil-war-like. Octavian was jealous he didn't get to bang Daddy Caesar's hot exotic trophy chick before Anthony did :P

Hehe, that's an interesting thought, the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Indy and Jones Sr are reminiscing about getting to bang Elsa...Anthony gets to bang the chick Caesar went all gah-gah over.

Oh...yeah, and Egypt being able to supply Rome with all of it's grain needs...yeah, that's kinda important, too :D

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I never thought I would find other people who disliked that Hawass as much as I do. I love you guys :D

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Once at a museum exhibit, there was a life-size poster of Hawass in the gift shop. I managed to refrain from asking whether it came with darts, because that would totally have been in bad taste, but at the time I was thinking it would have made a pretty darned funny gift for

xanath. And, it turns out, for other discriminating persons.

I bought some mummy magnets instead. Also nice.

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My god, what a dipshit. Also who the hell ~~would buy that~~ is their target buyer? I would rather make one, so he doesn't see a cent. :D

Mummy magnets are hells better. I would give the Luxor Casino thousands of dollars before I would give that ass a dime. At least Luxor makes things pretty and doesn't treat you like a moron?

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Well, it was a big dramatic image of him standing at the maw of an excavated tomb. I'll be gracious and say that maybe it was only on display as decoration next to the real posters. But I do remember believing it was on offer. Or maybe they were trying to get it out of there :D

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I'm going to believe they wanted to be rid of them :D

I'm rather surprised they weren't signed or some crap hahahaha

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xanath.livejournal.com

Aww! No Hawass dartboard?! . . . that's okay. :D I'll just wait till he gets his picture on the news sites again, which shouldn't be long (~~maybe in the next 30 minutes~~), and paste it to my bedroom wall.

Seriously, I hear you about archaeology. I always thought it would have been neat. Unfortunately, I'm a severe wuss when it comes to snakes and spiders, and I hear there's plenty of both on lots of digs. Bleah!

(Final note: I think I really hate Colleen McCullough. I found out she ended her Masters of Rome series with a novel about Antony and Cleopatra titled, what else? So I got it from the library. I wanted to set it on fire, a reaction I didn't even have for the Leckie atrocities. Gaaaaaaaahhhhh!)

From: (Anonymous)

Oh god yes. I'm an Egyptologist and what really rankles is that, whenever there's an interesting discovery of some sort, Zawass steals the spotlight. A colleague of mine had to endure a news team at his site between seasons, when he wasn't there - and, sure, it all belongs to Egypt and the SCA has the right to access all sites, but it's just rude to intrude on someone's excavation when he's not there and not even inform him of it. Plus, it's always "Zawass's team" here, "Zawass's team" there, even though he can't possibly be at all the sites he is supposedly excavating at the same time. Not mentioning the people actually overseeing the excavations is not only rude, it's doing Egyptian Egyptology a great disfavour, because you have the feeling Zawass is the only Egyptian scholar there is.
On the other hand, let's not forget the good he does - Egypt is finally getting the much-needed site museums that will allow people to view the objects near the context they were found in.

As for #2 - Caesar and Anthony obviously found her captivating enough to risk their political carreers for. That's something, ain't it?

-- BTW, sorry I'm anonymous. I don't want to join LiveJournal because I have enough going on in my life right now, but this entry hit a nerve. Keep up SPQR Blues, Klio, and don't worry. You probably have better pay than the average archaeologist ;) --

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