Egypt... more Egypt stuff...

Here's what I'm reading now!

I'm going to be reading about Egypt's history and trying to learn Hieroglyphic at the same time...

I've really started getting into Egyptology, but I don't know if that's the direction I'll take yet...

The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw, but each chapter is written by different scholars...

An incredible book containing the history of ancient Egypt, discussing all the aspects of Egyptian life... pretty excited to "dig" in...

I just have to throw this in real quick... I'm on page 50 and Beatrix Midant-Reynes is discussing the human representations during the Naqada II phase of the pre-Dynastic period and I quote, "Unlike women, men were no longer being solely identified by their primary sexual characteristics, but by a secondary sexual characteristic and the social status that this conferred on them. The beard was evidently a symbol of power, and, in the form of the ceremonial 'false beard', it later became strictly reserved for the chins of kings and gods." Booyah!

New Book

I think I've found what I'm going to talk about with this blog... it started out that everything was going to start with "This reminds me..." (hence the title), however I don't think I'm going to stick to that very well...

I think I'm going to start discussing books I'm reading...

I just finished one! Which I'm really excited about because I haven't actually finished a book in a very VERY long time...

This one is called, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? by William G. Dever.

Dever is a highly respected archaeologist/historian, not just in biblical archaeology, but in archaeology in general.

This book is great because he doesn't take the approach of "God said it; I believe it; that settles it!" He takes a more logical approach to the study of biblical archaeology. He discusses 5 approaches to using archaeological evidence that people generally follow. (and I know people that follow each) They are:

"1: Assume the biblical text is literally true, and ignore all external evidence as irrelevant.

2: Hold that the biblical text is probably true, but seek external corroboration.

3: Approach the text, as well as the external data, with no preconceptions. Single out the "convergences" of the two lines of evidence, and remain skeptical about the rest.

4: Contend that nothing in the biblical text is true, unless proven by external data.

5: Reject the text and any other data, since the Bible cannot be true."

(To Approach 5: a man on a train in Ireland told me, "Oh! The Bible, huh? That's a good book of myths and fairy tales!" not much of a thinker and he's probably never read it...)

Dever states, "... I shall resolutely hold to the middle ground - that is, to Approach 3 - because I think that truth is most likely to be found there."

And he does!

I know that there are a lot of issues between the facts that are found in the ground and what the Bible says, but I'm still not discounting the Bible and its message... I do believe in God and I do believe in His son, Jesus... and I do believe in Heaven and Hell... and I do believe in sin and salvation and Jesus' death and resurrection... and I believe there is a story to be told in the Bible. However, I don't believe that every story told is 100% fact... there are a lot of literary devices that the writers of the Bible used that were being used in their time in other writings to describe what actually happened...

By the end of the book, Dever has pointed out all the issues between archaeology and the biblical text... (i.e. there is no evidence for the Exodus, there is no evidence for the conquest of Canaan, there is no evidence of any hostile take over of the land, there's no evidence of a historical Moses, etc...)BUT what he discusses is the possibility that these stories are ancient Israel's method of telling the story of their beginnings as a country... as Dever puts it, a "metaphor for liberation" which is a device used commonly by ancient civilizations.

Also something to remember is that the Israelites were bedouin, pastoral hill-dwellers, so the chance of having an exact representation of their full history is slim to none....

I would elaborate on this, but I feel this is already too long... if you want me to talk more in detail about it, let me know and I will...

Learning Hieroglyphics...

I'm learning to read hieroglyphics...

trying to anyway...

Hieroglyphics: the sweet-looking writings of the ancient Egyptians.

I know what you're thinking: this guy is the biggest nerd I've (n)ever seen!

Well, yes... I am...

BUT I figure it will help me in my hopeful future as an archaeologist/historian/professor/whatever else...

This stuff is hard! Going into it, I knew that it was going to be difficult... but wow! I knew that I had to learn all the symbols and the combinations of symbols... but it somehow slipped my mind that even though we can transliterate them into what phonetically sounds like English, I also have to learn the Egyptian language in order to be able to read anything but names... although I have to say... to be able to look at a hieroglyph on a massive stone column or a piece of papyrus and be able to tell who the symbols are referring to is pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me...

anyway... there are a couple more books I need that are much better than this one such as Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs and Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. They go hand-in-hand and I think they'll be very useful...

I honestly think Egypt will be the next foreign land I scamper off to...

Also... I found a website for buying life-size replicas of ancient artifacts such as the Narmer Palette, the Rosetta Stone, and King Tutankhamen's burial mask... those are the ones I really want anyway... hahaha... (www.museumstorecompany.com) also some canopic jars would be awesome! They're the jars that were buried with the mummies that contained the organs! hahaha! or maybe a scarab... ah... who knows what I'll end up getting...

If I had it my way...

Tonight, I'm sitting at work... I work the overnight shift, so I have a lot of time to think...
and I began thinking of the way my life would be if I had it my way...
If I had it my way...
I would own a fully restored 1979 Volkswagen Van for roadtrips and such...
I would have a wooden canoe to go on top of said VW van...
I would be living in the Seattle area (I love the weather, terrain, availability of places to enjoy the outdoors nearby, gorgeous views, a lot of rain, the folk music scene is great there, it's got a very artistic-friendly atmosphere, coffee, outdoor markets, ocean nearby, rocky coasts, evergreens, desert on the other side of the mountains, people there are used to folks with beards, etc...)
I would be teaching history/archaeology at a university and doing research while making frequent trips to the Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia, etc... to do field research and excavation.
I would be working in some teaching role for a progressive church not affiliated with any denomination, because I feel that it's of the utmost importance for Christians to know the facts about the history of the Bible and the land and the cultures of the ancient near east and the problems that exist between the Bible and archaeological evidence...
I would have an apartment in the city so I could live an eco-friendly life... haha... and drive a scooter around town...
I would own a bookstore/coffe shop so I could have one to chill at any time I want...
I would be in a folk/Irish band... hahaha!
That's... that's about it...