The Wandering Archaeologist

    The Hittite text, The Deeds of Suppiluliuma , contains a famous passage recording a letter from an Egyptian king’s widow asking to marry a son of the Hittite king and make him ruler of Egypt. Even though the text gives the Egyptian king’s name Nibhururiya, this has been of little help to scholars seeking to identify him. Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, and Akhenaten have all been slated as possibilities.      Based on his translation of a reconstructed Hittite text (KUB 19.15+KBo 50.24) dated to the 7 th -9 th year of the reign of Suppiluliuma’s son Mursili, Jared Miller has argued for Akhenaten. The text recounts Tette of Nuhhasse’s flight to Egypt and Egypt’s interference in Amurru (Miller 2007: 252). Mursili discusses his correspondence with an Egyptian battle commander named Armaya, who Miller identifies as Horemheb (Miller 2007: 253), who became king of Egypt after Ay (who took over after the death of Akhenaten’s son Tutankhamun). In his article, “Amarna ...

I'd like to start a new series of blog posts.  They will probably not be reliably regular but hopefully regular enough to constitute a series. Recently I've been thinking a lot about how movies and TV portray the past, specifically my area of interest, the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean world (pre-Greek and Roman times).  So, I'd like to talk about the times Hollywood brings them up, explain what they may get wrong or right and if the former, how they could have fixed those things, without taking away from what they are trying to do in the movie or show. I'll start with the recent smash hit series The Good Place, which recently ended (and I cried).  Consider THIS your SPOILER WARNING, if you have not finished season 4, STOP HERE. In season 4's penultimate episode, the whole gang, humans, Michael and Janet, arrive in the real good place at last.  They of course end up meeting a few people from the ancient world, including the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandr...

Sugar is one of the most common items to be found in a household pantry, it is one of the cheapest ingredients one can buy at the grocery store, and it is an integral part of thousands of recipes, particularly sweet dishes.  But how did it grow to be so popular? How did the cane sugar plant, native to a tropical climate and requiring a lot of water, a lot of heat and a lot of labor to process become part of a thriving industry? How did a luxury item become as abundant as water? The roots of this phenomenon can be found in the Islamic Period.  The explosion of the sugar trade in this period was brought on by new developments in its production, helping this substance enter new international trade markets.  This industry flourished under Ayyubid and Mamluk rule, giving many new peoples a sweet tooth and laying the foundations for the modern sugar industry. Sugar production was not new in the Islamic period, even the ancient Greeks and Romans were awar...

What role did pastoralists, nomadic pastoralists in particular, play in ancient Mesopotamian society?  In my opinion, ancient Mesopotamian pastoralists and nomadic pastoralists did not have just one role.  Their place in society was diverse and changed depending on the time and place.  This is clear from both archaeological and textual evidence from periods like the third and second millennia BCE and from places like Ur and Mari.  Sometimes they are portrayed as closely integrated with urban society, and other times as completely separate from it.  Despite their changing status, what does appear constant is the sense of separateness that existed between pastoralist (especially nomadic pastoralists) and sedentary agriculturalists.  The latter were the ones who left most of the evidence we see in the archaeological record and produced texts, all of which show that sedentists regard themselves as different from pastoralists, specifically as more civilize...

           Every year, millions of tourists travel the world to see the variety of attractions the modern age has to offer.  But some of the most prized destinations are those not produced by this age, but those of the past.  We travel to Italy for the Colosseum, China for the Great Wall, Peru for Machu Pichu. Meanwhile, archaeological s ite managers strive to make the most exciting and famous parts of a site available for tourists to see. Sometimes whole sites or pieces of them have been reconstructed for a more appealing look or give the visitors the feeling that they are walking in a place at the height of its power.  Tourism can bring a site and its local community great economic gain. Many archaeological sites have prospered tremendously from the thousands of tourist visits every year, likewise the communities and businesses in towns have flourished from being close to archaeological sites.    ...

As high school progressed and people asked what I wanted to study in college, I looked to my class schedule for some guidance.  I knew I didn’t want to spend my life doing a job I hated and waiting for retirement, so I asked myself: "What school subject do I wake up excited for?"  Apart from early morning choir practices, the answer was history.  My next question was, “Can I make history into a job?”  Through research I found archaeology, a field that did not just study the past but made it come into being, a field that actively sought to answer questions and set the record straight.  It involves reading, research, debating and the chance to travel - I was sold.  I started my freshman year of college with confidence and have never altered my course.  It's made me stressed and sometimes discouraged but it still gives me the happiness it always has.  Along this path, I’ve made a few observations about this field and one of these is about gender. ...