One of the reason Kara is my favourite Egyptologist. Thought provoking, no tiptoeing around, a spade is a spade - or not the listeners mmv. Thank you for your work!
One thing I notice that is often overlooked in these discussions is the role of the craftsperson. I am an artist who specializes in commissioned pieces- work done for other people as opposed to work done for purely artistic purposes (think portraits). Listening to the discussion about all the different design elements in the stela reminded me of sitting down with a client.
It’s typically a three part process- collecting all the visual elements from the client (in this case the king or his high priests/ court), the artists interpretation of said elements, and lastly the final executed product.
I know from experience that the artist typically presents multiple versions of what the client has requested, each version being a whole and visually finished piece of art, and from these the client picks and chooses elements from the different versions that fits their requirements (not necessarily the best choices from a design perspective). It’s then up to the artist to take the often disparate versions and attempt to make them into a coherent whole. This process often makes for some bizarre visual imagery.
This was excellent. It’s never sat well for me that Tutankhamun’s mother was Akhenaten’s full sister (presumably Nebetah or Isis), not because of the incest but because it seemed so unlikely that she would be kept so under-wraps and barely mentioned in his reign if she had given him a son. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that a daughter would give very similar DNA markers to a full sister. It makes total sense that it would be Meritaten, especially since she was so celebrated in his reign.
Now, if your book on Nefertiti (which I look forward to) is going to make academics’ heads explode, please wish me luck as I write a novel of Akhenaten and Nefertiti! I was wondering how to include brother-sister incest, but this has just made sympathy with his character even more difficult to sustain to a modern readership! His daughter…yeah, I might just need to gloss over that…
The erect kilt made me laugh. I’ll never see it in the same way again.
Fascinating discussion as usual! I love when you all just pick a subject and stretch your minds around it, feeding off of each others’ ideas and understandings to postulate on the meaning of a text or an object, or on how the ancient Egyptians may have understood it. 🤩
One of the reason Kara is my favourite Egyptologist. Thought provoking, no tiptoeing around, a spade is a spade - or not the listeners mmv. Thank you for your work!
One thing I notice that is often overlooked in these discussions is the role of the craftsperson. I am an artist who specializes in commissioned pieces- work done for other people as opposed to work done for purely artistic purposes (think portraits). Listening to the discussion about all the different design elements in the stela reminded me of sitting down with a client.
It’s typically a three part process- collecting all the visual elements from the client (in this case the king or his high priests/ court), the artists interpretation of said elements, and lastly the final executed product.
I know from experience that the artist typically presents multiple versions of what the client has requested, each version being a whole and visually finished piece of art, and from these the client picks and chooses elements from the different versions that fits their requirements (not necessarily the best choices from a design perspective). It’s then up to the artist to take the often disparate versions and attempt to make them into a coherent whole. This process often makes for some bizarre visual imagery.
This was excellent. It’s never sat well for me that Tutankhamun’s mother was Akhenaten’s full sister (presumably Nebetah or Isis), not because of the incest but because it seemed so unlikely that she would be kept so under-wraps and barely mentioned in his reign if she had given him a son. I don’t know why it never occurred to me that a daughter would give very similar DNA markers to a full sister. It makes total sense that it would be Meritaten, especially since she was so celebrated in his reign.
Now, if your book on Nefertiti (which I look forward to) is going to make academics’ heads explode, please wish me luck as I write a novel of Akhenaten and Nefertiti! I was wondering how to include brother-sister incest, but this has just made sympathy with his character even more difficult to sustain to a modern readership! His daughter…yeah, I might just need to gloss over that…
The erect kilt made me laugh. I’ll never see it in the same way again.
Fascinating discussion as usual! I love when you all just pick a subject and stretch your minds around it, feeding off of each others’ ideas and understandings to postulate on the meaning of a text or an object, or on how the ancient Egyptians may have understood it. 🤩
So glad you like it Isabelle. This is one of those objects that stops you in your tracks, demanding you figure it out.
I sometimes wish I had kept with my college major in history and gone on to study Egyptology but deep down I know I wasn’t made for academia!
These discussions most definitely scratch the itch 💙