We don’t usually associate too much rain with Egypt, but there was enough that a legal papyrus instructs judges how to settle disputes over rain gutters. But did they even have gutters? You may enjoy a snippet of ancient daily life on a subject we all love to avoid dealing with.
There’s the top 10 discoveries in archaeology overall for the year, and then there’s those in Near Eastern archaeology. I find this list more interesting–a map, dating by clay, wine, and the Queen of Sheba. Does that grab you, also?
When is sliver more precious than gold, and tin most precious of all? And how far would an Old Kingdom Pharaoh send his traders to fetch silver for his queen? These are some of the questions I’m asking myself after reading about a “surprising” new trading discovery buried in Hetepheres tomb.
Why did Hittites fight from chariots rather than horseback? At least part of the answer is that they hadn’t sorted out the right kind of saddle. So this “earliest” frame saddle found in Mongolia is intriguing. Up for some horse history?
I enjoy seeing which discoveries make Archaeology Magazine’s “Top 10” list each year. I am impressed by the range of dates, geography, and types this year.
I’m participating in a pre-Thanksgiving book sale. You’ll find lots of fantasy, including Hand of Fire, my Trojan War novel and Priestess of Ishana, about the Hittite queen history forgot. (Both for less than a dollar)
I’ve been thinking about the women of Greek mythology lately. This probably explains why I enjoyed this CBC radio interview with Natalie Haynes about her nonfiction book Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths. I suspect you might enjoy it also.
A computer scientist believes he can reveal the entire library of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law from scrolls carbonized by Vesuvius. It’s a bit complicated!
I hope you’ll be Intrigued, as I was, by these letters of women from 1860 BCE. These women were integral to the international textile trade between Assyria and Anatolia. Or perhaps you’re interested in watching an experimental archaeologist reconstruct what these weaving women actually did with wool.
My reading at the Avid Reader was great fun. Since the excerpt I crafted for this event is spookily appropriate for the Halloween season, I’m sharing it with you. Amazing what happened when I looked at the first chapter not as the opening for the whole book, but as a place from which to pluck a brief, spellbinding tale for an audience. I hope you enjoy it.
