Life
Mr Prue has had a cold and this brought back some of the symptoms he had with pneumonia. He had been making such good progress too. I'm hoping he'll get over this setback soon. In spite of this we've seen two films - Las Acacias and Habemus Papem; both subtitled, both intruiging and entertaining.
And we were up early on Saturday for a geology meeting arranged by the West Midlands OUGS (Open University Geology Society). Five speakers, all very good; three of them were excellent. I love listening to talks by people who can speak about their work in an informative and entertaining way, and whose enthusiasm shines through. It's infectious and energising :)
In a few spare moments, I've been reading about the First Intermediate Period (2160 - 2055 BC) in ancient Egypt. Historians try to piece together what happened in those far-off times using small amounts of information which have survived, against all odds. It's like working out the picture from a 5000-piece jigsaw where ninety-nine percent of the pieces are missing.
And I find it fascinating! :D
Writing
Typing-in all the revised words and sentences for The Green Ribbon. It's finished but there's the not-so-small-and-very-confusing matter of breaking it up into chapters. Sometimes the break is clear; sometimes it isn't. More information can be found here.
Showing posts with label ancient Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancient Egypt. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Ancient Egypt
Prehistoric Egypt
Egypt is famous for its pharaohs with all their wealth, pomp and pyramids , but people were living along the narrow oasis of the river Nile long before pharaohs, and their complex religious cults, came into being.
The Sahara
I was amazed to learn that between 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, the Sahara was savannah grassland and not dry desert. This Sahara-savannah supported herds of gazelles, giraffes, elephants and other wild animals; and small bands of people, hunter-gatherers, moved in the hunt the wildlife.
Climate changed, and about 4800 years ago the Sahara began to get drier. As water became scarce, people and animals moved away and, inevitably, some ended up in the Nile Valley.
Agriculture
Next on the scene was agriculture, probably introduced from the Levant. This new technology changed life forever.
I find it difficult to imagine what life would have been like without wheat - no bread for one thing (and no cookies either!). Farming tied people to the land, population slowly increased and hamlets, then villages, then towns grew up along the life-giving Nile.
Pottery came into use and some examples can be seen here. It is simple and yet so beautiful.
Early Villages and Towns
The early Egyptian peoples are grouped together into the 'predynastic' period - that time in Egypt's past before pharaohs started their long rule over Egypt. It is possible that each town had its own leader. Does this copy of a wall painting from a tomb show those first town-dwellers of the Nile going about their business?
The upper part of the Libyan palette shows small crennelated squares - thought to represent towns - with pictures within (maybe early hieroglyphs, perhaps giving the name of the town). Above each 'town' is an animal; it is thought that leaders/early kings were associated or represented by animals.
King Scorpion
That life-like scorpion occurs in other places and has been linked to 'King Scorpion'. More about him and what he got up to next week.
Egypt is famous for its pharaohs with all their wealth, pomp and pyramids , but people were living along the narrow oasis of the river Nile long before pharaohs, and their complex religious cults, came into being.
The Sahara
I was amazed to learn that between 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, the Sahara was savannah grassland and not dry desert. This Sahara-savannah supported herds of gazelles, giraffes, elephants and other wild animals; and small bands of people, hunter-gatherers, moved in the hunt the wildlife.
Climate changed, and about 4800 years ago the Sahara began to get drier. As water became scarce, people and animals moved away and, inevitably, some ended up in the Nile Valley.
Agriculture
Next on the scene was agriculture, probably introduced from the Levant. This new technology changed life forever.
I find it difficult to imagine what life would have been like without wheat - no bread for one thing (and no cookies either!). Farming tied people to the land, population slowly increased and hamlets, then villages, then towns grew up along the life-giving Nile.
Pottery came into use and some examples can be seen here. It is simple and yet so beautiful.
Early Villages and Towns
The early Egyptian peoples are grouped together into the 'predynastic' period - that time in Egypt's past before pharaohs started their long rule over Egypt. It is possible that each town had its own leader. Does this copy of a wall painting from a tomb show those first town-dwellers of the Nile going about their business?
The upper part of the Libyan palette shows small crennelated squares - thought to represent towns - with pictures within (maybe early hieroglyphs, perhaps giving the name of the town). Above each 'town' is an animal; it is thought that leaders/early kings were associated or represented by animals.
King Scorpion
That life-like scorpion occurs in other places and has been linked to 'King Scorpion'. More about him and what he got up to next week.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
It's Sunday Again!
This week has gone by with little to show for it. Pain gets in the way of many things and stopped my brain working. However, things got a whole lot better when my 'donut' cushion arrived and I can now sit down in comfort. Not being able to sit is a real pain - in more ways than one :)
Life
This revolved round reading, trying to take my mind off the discomfort. Mostly reading text books for the evening class essay on Ancient Egypt. I'll post more about this subject later in the week as it is fascinating me.
Still on the Egyptian theme, Mr Prue and I went to Oxford's Ashmolean Museum yesterday to see the newly opened Ancient Egyptian gallery. It claims to have the best predynastic exhibits outside Cairo, and I can well believe it. Overall there is too much to take in at once. Our evening class has only got to 2500 B.C.E. so halfway round the gallery we decided to call it a day and return early next year.
You can view some of what we saw here.
It was the highlight of my week :)
Oh...and I did a little Christmas shopping too.
Writing
Sadly, I did no writing this week. This coming week there is a 2000 word essay to write about the factors leading to the unification of Egypt way back around 3000 B.C.E. or thereabouts.
Life
This revolved round reading, trying to take my mind off the discomfort. Mostly reading text books for the evening class essay on Ancient Egypt. I'll post more about this subject later in the week as it is fascinating me.
Still on the Egyptian theme, Mr Prue and I went to Oxford's Ashmolean Museum yesterday to see the newly opened Ancient Egyptian gallery. It claims to have the best predynastic exhibits outside Cairo, and I can well believe it. Overall there is too much to take in at once. Our evening class has only got to 2500 B.C.E. so halfway round the gallery we decided to call it a day and return early next year.
You can view some of what we saw here.
It was the highlight of my week :)
Oh...and I did a little Christmas shopping too.
Writing
Sadly, I did no writing this week. This coming week there is a 2000 word essay to write about the factors leading to the unification of Egypt way back around 3000 B.C.E. or thereabouts.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Sunday Summary
It's Sunday again! The sun is shining and surprisingly warm for mid-November although the wind has a cool edge to it. Still plenty of leaves on the trees, some are even green but there's plenty of gold, orange, pinks and deep reds around.
Plant of the month:
Persian ironwood tree Parrotia persica. See a picture here. Beautiful spreading trees which come into their own at this time of the year. The leaves turn multi-coloured as shown here.
I love trees of all kinds but at this time of the year, this is one of my favorites.
Life:
Much of my spare has been spent reading one of the recommended books for the Ancient Egyptian evening class Mr Prue and I are doing; The Oxford Book of Ancient Egypt edited by Ian Shaw.
It starts off back in Palaeolithic times around 700,000 years before pesent and goes through to 394 AD, so it covers quite a chunk of history. For all that, even though it goes through every king and pharaoh it doesn't read like a dry list. There aren't many photographs, and those provided are only in black and white. However, with the Internet a click away, it's possible to access a lot of good colour pictures - as well as a lot more information - very easily.
One of the visually pleasing on-line sites I've been frequenting this week has videos and games, in addition to information. This is Mark Millmore's Ancient Egypt. Full marks for the videos which keep me coming back to this site.
Writing:
Due to interruptions of various kinds, I've done less than usual. Now on Lesson 19 of Holly Lisle's How To Review Your Novel, so I'm still making progress.
I've also been out and about on the Internet, looking at sites and blogs concerned with publishing, critting etc.
Plant of the month:
Persian ironwood tree Parrotia persica. See a picture here. Beautiful spreading trees which come into their own at this time of the year. The leaves turn multi-coloured as shown here.
I love trees of all kinds but at this time of the year, this is one of my favorites.
Life:
Much of my spare has been spent reading one of the recommended books for the Ancient Egyptian evening class Mr Prue and I are doing; The Oxford Book of Ancient Egypt edited by Ian Shaw.
It starts off back in Palaeolithic times around 700,000 years before pesent and goes through to 394 AD, so it covers quite a chunk of history. For all that, even though it goes through every king and pharaoh it doesn't read like a dry list. There aren't many photographs, and those provided are only in black and white. However, with the Internet a click away, it's possible to access a lot of good colour pictures - as well as a lot more information - very easily.
One of the visually pleasing on-line sites I've been frequenting this week has videos and games, in addition to information. This is Mark Millmore's Ancient Egypt. Full marks for the videos which keep me coming back to this site.
Writing:
Due to interruptions of various kinds, I've done less than usual. Now on Lesson 19 of Holly Lisle's How To Review Your Novel, so I'm still making progress.
I've also been out and about on the Internet, looking at sites and blogs concerned with publishing, critting etc.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Saturday Summary
Writing
Finished cutting and rewriting my short story. It was an unpleasant surprise when I got a strong and sudden lack of confidence about the story. So I put it to one side and wrote something for a competition.
The mini-saga competition is on Helen Yendall's blog. Only open to subscribers, the story must be 100 words or less and inspired by a lovely autumnal picture provided by Helen. Closing date is midnight GMT on 31st October so not long left.
I like the way short stories make me aware of the function of each sentence, phrase and even each word. I figure practicing on shorts will enable me to extend this to a longer short story and eventually a novel. So thanks Helen :)
Life
Week 2 of Ancient Egyptian history galloped us through Dynasty 0. I've been reading up about Pre-dynastic (before kings) Egypt and am still amazed at the thousands and thousands of years when all man had was stone tools - and the fact that my computer was obsolete after 6 years!
The new refridgerator arrived and is so quiet I find myself listening to see if it's still working. Occasionally it burbles to itself. It's often the little things that count in life - like the pleasure of being able to open the fridge door fully, and without it sounding like something from a house of horror movie, and without the bits of plastic dropping on the floor.
The old fridge served us well but also became obsolete...a long time ago. R.I.P.
And Finally...
After being unable to eat chocolate for the last 8 years (resulted in migraines) I've found I can now eat small amounts of milk chocolate without any ill effects! Today I had a few Maltesers. They were wonderful :)
What small things do you value, that you would really miss if they disappeared?
Finished cutting and rewriting my short story. It was an unpleasant surprise when I got a strong and sudden lack of confidence about the story. So I put it to one side and wrote something for a competition.
The mini-saga competition is on Helen Yendall's blog. Only open to subscribers, the story must be 100 words or less and inspired by a lovely autumnal picture provided by Helen. Closing date is midnight GMT on 31st October so not long left.
I like the way short stories make me aware of the function of each sentence, phrase and even each word. I figure practicing on shorts will enable me to extend this to a longer short story and eventually a novel. So thanks Helen :)
Life
Week 2 of Ancient Egyptian history galloped us through Dynasty 0. I've been reading up about Pre-dynastic (before kings) Egypt and am still amazed at the thousands and thousands of years when all man had was stone tools - and the fact that my computer was obsolete after 6 years!
The new refridgerator arrived and is so quiet I find myself listening to see if it's still working. Occasionally it burbles to itself. It's often the little things that count in life - like the pleasure of being able to open the fridge door fully, and without it sounding like something from a house of horror movie, and without the bits of plastic dropping on the floor.
The old fridge served us well but also became obsolete...a long time ago. R.I.P.
And Finally...
After being unable to eat chocolate for the last 8 years (resulted in migraines) I've found I can now eat small amounts of milk chocolate without any ill effects! Today I had a few Maltesers. They were wonderful :)
What small things do you value, that you would really miss if they disappeared?
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Sunday Summary
Writing
In spite of a fluey bug, I cracked on with revising my short story. Exciting and motivating to see it come together and represent more accurately that wonderful story I have in my head. What is teasing me at present is how writers find beta-readers. Not quite ready for others to read it yet but getting closer. Yay!
Life
Mr Prue and I started an evening class on ancient Egyptian history. Strange to think that a few thousand years ago the Saharan desert was once covered in grass with herds of gazelles bouncing around! *lol* I seem to have a tendency to write 'dessert' instead of 'desert' :)
My main reason for going is background information for the next book after Mystery in Morocco.
Next week
Carry on rewriting my short story - nearly half-way through!
Finish editing a document I agreed to do.
Catch up on emails.
Catch up with the more necessary household tasks abandoned this last week.
In spite of a fluey bug, I cracked on with revising my short story. Exciting and motivating to see it come together and represent more accurately that wonderful story I have in my head. What is teasing me at present is how writers find beta-readers. Not quite ready for others to read it yet but getting closer. Yay!
Life
Mr Prue and I started an evening class on ancient Egyptian history. Strange to think that a few thousand years ago the Saharan desert was once covered in grass with herds of gazelles bouncing around! *lol* I seem to have a tendency to write 'dessert' instead of 'desert' :)
My main reason for going is background information for the next book after Mystery in Morocco.
Next week
Carry on rewriting my short story - nearly half-way through!
Finish editing a document I agreed to do.
Catch up on emails.
Catch up with the more necessary household tasks abandoned this last week.
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