I am a wannabe, I think. I’ve always been interested in Egyptian history, and read a lot about it. I’ve only taken one class on it, and my current school only offers one, so I doubt I’ll be getting much more formal schooling on Egyptology until Grad School.
Nevertheless, it my favorite academic subject. I’m planning on working on learning to read Middle Egyptian this summer, which should be a nice challenge.
I’m also really interested in the mythology (and other ancient mythologies as well), and I remember seeing Fierra make a kick-ass post concerning that, so I hope she shows up.
I know there’s someone on the boards who knows more about this topic than me.
Actually, Egypt was never really a mighty army power. They had some good generals from time to time, but the army was usually made up of Kushite (Nubian) mercenaries.
Egypt tended to dominate the international scene through it’s massive wealth rather than it’s military might.
I love all things Egyptian. I collect whatever I can afford to buy and recieve lots more as gifts.
I read and watch everything that comes on and I have most of them on tape, even the crackpot stuff. My shelves are full of books on Ancient Egypt, it’s peoples, culture and history. I always managed to tie at least one paper a year into Ancient Egypt.
My kids have inherited the obsession. My daughter can read heiroglyphics and my son is currently fascinated by mummies and the mythology of Egypt.
In a perfect world, I would either be an Egyptologist in the field or teaching it.
She’s 15. She started learning them when she was about 5 from an Ancient Egyptian Alphabet poster I had on the bathroom wall at the time and then she got a heiroglyphics stamp kit for Christmas the next year. Since then I’ve bought textbooks along with the other books on Egyptology and she supplemented it through those. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine in Athens sent her a set of videos and tapes for additional learning.
Because it is a very cool thing to be able to say she knows, she never let herself get frustrated and, whenever possible, would write things out in them. She has said that if she doesn’t make a practice of either reading or writing them regularly, she will start forgetting the more obscure ones.
My specific interests lie mostly in the evolution of the arts and architecture and how they reflected the civilization’s growing knowledge of the world around them.
I also am fascinated by the areas not too many people pay attention to, like the poetry.
I’m exactly like Dropzone. I watch all of the TV programs and have a stack of cool books. I know way more than the average person but could hardly be considered any sort of serious study on the topic.
I like egypt. I studied it for four years at uni and collected some pretty cool books on it which I still love to read, even though I’m not doing it anymore. It’ll probably always be more of a hobby for me, but if anyone’s interested in hiring an Egyptologist…?
<puts her hand up>
<waves it around>
I am impressed with your daughter Arden!! I sucked badly at reading hieroglyphs unfortunately. I know what they mean, but I’m a bit shabby on vocab. Ah well…
Learning about Egypt as a kid is what gave me my love of archaeology. The only problem is that there are too many Egyptologists and too many Mayanists for that matter. There are so many that getting a job when you are done graduate school is going to be a real issue. Often times you are just waiting for people to die so their positions become available. That was part of the reason that I dropped out of graduate school.
If you want to make a career out of this you need to be known. Go to the SAA’s and other confrences and make presentations and get your name out there. A narrow focus also helps. Middle Egyptian history is a good starting point, but if you can narrow it down even further, to say settlement patterns or land use or gender roles, the better off you’ll be in graduate school. As you get closer to grad school you should at least have a vague idea about what you want your dissertation to be about (but don’t sweat it, since it will most likely change as you go on).
It is tough work and the first semester or two of grad school is a process to weed out people. Stay tough and stay focused and you’ll do fine.
I’m a wannabe. I figure I’d never find a job in Eygptology.
If anybody needs a person with a passing knowledge of geology, and can pay I’m in. At least travel expensives and a place to stay. That way I can afford a few weeks.
nefertari, have you ever posted on the Guardian’s Eygpt board?
No, I haven’t Dagny, probabaly a fellow ‘nefertari’.
I think unglamorous includes Australian aboriginal archaeology because there isn’t anything in the way of monumental architecture or luxury material remains ie. Jewellery, gold… Which is a shame because it’s really fascinating stuff.
Yes, I’m an enthusiast. It’s not just Egyptology though, It’s all things Archaeological. I get a couple journals, will read the occasional book, and just generally love the subject. I would have liked to go into it as a career, but got sidetracked somewhere along the way by applied science.
Sorry, LaurAnge, I was away on business & didn’t see this thread.
I mostly like the mythology, although I know some of the history and culture too. My more detailed knowledge of the history is from the time of the Greek conquest & the Ptolemaic pharoahs.
I also know various other mythologies from that area (and world wide). I’m mostly a mythology addict, who reads some ancient history & cultural information for their own interest & in their own right, but also because it impacts the mythology and the meaning of the myths. I can read latin & ancient greek, but not Egyptian, so good luck with it, I’ll be interested in how you get on (I have some hieroglyphs books, but never seem to have time).
Wannabe. I’ve always toyed with writing a novel about Akhenaton in which the last scene, taking place after his death, is of his last surviving daughter, now a dynastic Norma Desmond as Seti I’s dynasty is on the throne, draws from the Nile a basket containing a Hebrew child. As he grows she teaches him about the one true God who lives in the sky and he grows up to be Charlton Heston.
I’m fascinated by all aspects of the culture and especially by their interactions with the other Meditteranean and west-Asian civilizations. I think it first began for me when I was a horny teenager and read that Ramses II was given a haren when he was nine and ultimately had at least 178 children.
Did you guys watch the History Channel today? It could be total bullshit, but they did a series on the REAL Scorpion King, or King Scorpion, the first real king of a united Egypt. Really neat!
Even if it’s a total crock, it was still very interesting.
The Scorpion King finds seem to indicate that written language developed in Egypt and not Mesopotamia. A book about the subject came out about the same time as the movie opened creating instant media attention. The regin of King Scorpion seems to predate that of Narmer (Angry Catfish if I remeber the translation right). Narmer is often credited as the king that united Upper and Lower Egypt.
