Cats in Ancient Egypt

Class 2 moved from Mesopotamian to Egyptian Animals. I introduced one of my favorite Egyptologists, Salima Ikram, who has posted two videos about Egyptian mythology and animals, especially cats.

Animal cults (5 min)

Documentary on cats (45 min)

The Archaeology of Pets and Other Animals (4 week class, spring 2024)

Summary: Man’s historical relationship with animals goes far beyond using animal parts for food, clothing, and ornaments. This class will begin with trusted pets (e.g. dogs, cats, and birds). Later we will consider relationships with animals who serve specific functions (e.g. plowing, milking, transport, war) and odd companions (e.g. snakes, geese). When were animals first domesticated? Which animals ate and slept with their humans? Which animals achieved sacred status, either as gods or as symbols of transformation and the afterlife? Types of evidence will include pet cemeteries around the world, stables and other enclosures, bone and coprolite analyses, art, and literature.

The first class introduced different types of evidence archaeologists use, including burials of animals with humans, artifacts, art, literature, and faunal analysis. 

Video: What is Zooarchaeology? (7 minute Australian video)

         

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Archaeology of Health and Disease, Part II

 ARTICLE: 

“Indiana Bones” visits ancient Pompeii.

VIDEOS: YouTube video on Day in the Life of an Egyptiandoctor.

 Curator’s Corner movie, British Museum, on recent mummy analyses. 

 A Humorous Medical video on Galen.

SHORT STORY: “Death on Display” by Sarah Wisseman

Archaeology of Health and Disease, Part I

 Recently I taught this course at our local Osher Lifelong Learning center. Here are some of the links I promised for more information or deeper dives:

An amputation in the Stone Age.

MESOPOTAMIA

Very good summary by Prof. Nancy Demand

Online article by Laura Zucconi, author of an excellent "deep dive" book, Ancient Medicine from Mesopotamia to Rome (2019)

More on Mesopotamian health and medicine.

EGYPTIAN MEDICINE

Egyptian leg brace

ROMAN MEDICINE

Evidence for spinal tuberculosis at Pompeii.

Cosmic Places and Sacred Landscapes

 Weeks 3 and 4 of my "Discover the Ancient Sky" class covered wandering planets, key stars and constellations, and huge sites that represented sacred landscapes that are far more than solar and lunar observatories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge#/media/File:Stonehenge2007_07_30.jpg

Links to Key Sites and Monuments:

STONEHENGE

CHACO CANYON

Links to cultural stuff:

How to read the Maya Calendar

Inca astronomy in South America. Also here.

Videos seen in class:

CAHOKIA

CHACO CANYON

CHICHEN ITZA

CHANKILLO

Additional Bibliography:

Aubrey Burl (2005)  Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual

J. L. Heilbron (2001) The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

University of Maryland Archaeoastronomy center

UNESCO portal: Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy

Astronomical links: 

Stanford University Solar Center

Our Wonky Moon and Lunar Alignments

 Last week we continued with solar alignments at sites like Chankillo, Peru (see this wonderful video) and spent some time on the lunar orbit. Because the moon's orbital cycle is 18.6 years to repeat its tilting pattern, it is very hard to visualize. The best explanation I have found is here, at the University of Massachusetts Sunwheel website (a sort of mini-Stonehenge created by Prof. Judith Young).

            Thirteen towers at Chankillo. Source: photo by David Edgar, Wikipedia

Another wonderful reference is "Ancient Observatories," by Deborah Scherrer at the Solar Center at Stanford University.

Why study ancient stargazers?

 During the month of February 2022, I'm teaching an Olli course on Discovering the Ancient Sky: The Archaeology of Astronomy.

Why study ancient stargazers? Because people discovered thousands of years ago that being able to predict celestial events such as eclipses of the sun or the flooding of major rivers gave them control over human resources and human behavior. How much of early astrology and astronomy is based on observation vs. mathematics? We owe a considerable debt to ancient Babylonia and Egypt for their accurate observations and timekeeping and to Greek philosophers for their views of the cosmos. However, what people were able to observe depends on several things: time of year and season (controlled by the earth’s movement around the sun and the earth’s tilt), and latitude. How ancient sites were oriented depended on what various cultures considered important (e.g. direction of Nile flow and rising of the sun in Egypt vs. Cahokia’s lunar and Milky Way alignments).

I consulted many books and websites to prepare for this class. Here are some of my favorites: 

 *Taylor, Ken. Celestial Geometry: Understanding the Meanings of Ancient Sites (2012).

*Hadingham, Evan. Early Man and the Cosmos (1984).

*Cornell, James. The First Stargazers: An Introduction to the Origins of Astronomy (1981).

*Aveni, Anthony. People and the Sky: Our Ancestors and the Cosmos (2008).

Aveni, Anthony. Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great Ancient Cultures (1997).

Moche, Dinah L. Astronomy: A Self-teaching Guide, 8^th Edition (2015).

Marshak, Stephen and Robert Rauber. Earth Science: The Earth, the Atmosphere, and Space, especially Part 5: “Our Solar System and Beyond” (2020 edition).

For a video on the earth's tilt and how that affects the seasons, go here.

For the video on New Grange, Ireland that I showed during the first class, go here.