| Tuesday, April 18, 2006 Quiet! Epigrapher at Work | Permalink |
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 Before I whisk us away from Egypt for a while, let me share something of the why's and wherefore's for my being there. As a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of Virginia, my advisor was the director of the Hierakonpolis Project (see the link on my main page to the web site for the project). In 1979 he had a radical idea. Instead of taking students of Egyptian archaeology, he wanted to bring a crew of people with strong experience in a variety of 'multidisciplinary' skills. I was selected because I had a reputation for understanding 'dirt.' In archaeology-speak that meant that I had a knack for looking at the excavations and understanding something of what caused the patterns of different soils and how to take it apart in a manner that allowed us to protect the 'context' of any artifacts we found. That said, I joined the expedition in January 1979, spent a week in Cairo getting supplies and headed south by train to Luxor. In Luxor we spent about 3 days sightseeing before we moved on to our site on the fringes of the High Desert about 20 miles north of the City of Idfu. The best part of being in Luxor was staying at the Chicago House. Operated by the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, this was total immersion in a sort of colonial atmosphere, surrounded by scholars of ancient Egypt. I will save the descriptions of the this place for later, but it is introduction to today's picture. This is Dr. Lanny Bell, the Director of Chicago House from 1977 until 1986 or so. Lanny is an 'Epigrapher.' That is, he studies ancient inscriptions. During the period we visited and were guests of the Oriental Institute, Dr. Bell and his staff were recording the inscriptions at Luxor Temple. And here we see him at work. According to a biographical blurb I found on line tonight: An expert on the Luxor area, his publications include articles on divine kingship and temple and society in Ancient Egypt, as well as a ground breaking chapter on Luxor Temple in Temples of Ancient Egypt published by Cornell University Press. Professor Bell has also been a consultant for National Geographic magazine and has appeared in its documentary, 'Egypt: Quest for Eternity,' as well as A&E’s presentation, 'Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypts.' Professor Bell is a very popular lecturer and has twice been appointed to endowed lectureships of the Archaeological Institute of America. Posted by forgingahead | Comment (10) Category: People, My Shots, Archaeology Links: forgingahead Main Site Archives: People (75), Family (77), My Shots (120), Dad's Shots (128), Places I Have Lived (32), Places I Have Visited (64), Archaeology (23) | |
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