Dr Jay's Musings

        As promised, I have conducted my first test of a Matterport camera on on outdoor archaeological site.  We know it is good for tombs and the like but outdoors does pose some problems. I cannot wait to test it some more, but I did learn a few lessons.  Notes for use; 1) I shot the images at about 5:30am a perfect time.  By 6:30 the sun was starting to get strong and it was more difficult for the sensor to align the images. 2) I did it hasty so that means the halfa grass was thick, holes were hidden, and it was a bit treacherous.  When going about a formal non-test case, make sure you do the preliminary work of clearing obstacles and anything you don't want in the model.  Note my police escort appears in various places in the distance. 3) keep your points close, I think 1-2 m intervals. 4) Choose your elevation.  Because it is a large structure I set the tripod at a high level.  If you are more interested in t...

I have seen the famous wooden prosthetic toe in textbooks on ancient medicine, on social media, and in academic talks, but I was surprised and thrilled to see it for myself at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.  The foot and toe date to 950-710 BCE and we’re recovered from the mummy of a woman found near Luxor.  There is another toe of cartonnage at the British Museum as well. I recall my ancient history professor at San Jose State University decades ago discussing Henri Frankfort's Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society .  I was a bit incredulous about Frankfurt's interpretation of the relationship between the icons of gods and the spiritual essence of the deity. Whether wood, cartonnage, straw, faience, or stone, these representations were not merely representations but the embodiment of the spirit, no less real than the connection of your mind and body.  For example, there is an account of a man mak...

      This week in Alexandria there was a meeting to discuss the identity of this statue.  The finder, Dr. Calliope Papakosta, Director of the Hellenic Research Institute of the Alexandrian Civilization, has very strong feelings about it.  Some of the experts in attendance made some interesting points and comparisons in disagreement.   I thought it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on it and why you think so. Thank you National Geographic Society for co-sponsoring this.

       Nubian acrobats were all the rage in the Roman Empire and it seems that a troupe paid a visit to Thmouis (Tell Timai).  A group of lamps, surely sold as souvenirs to the audience, were found in an offering pit or foundation deposit in the central tell...my speculation is that the gymnasium was in this area (note, there was a dedication stone for the gymnasium recovered early in the 20th century at Tell Timai, but we do not know from where. the stone is now at the newly re-opened Graeco Roman Museum ).  The baths are about 80m from the offering deposit, so not too far for men to run naked through the city to soak after a workout. For more details do see the Tell Timai publications in print due to the efforts of our figurine expert, Dr. James Bennett!  J. Bennett, A Troupe of Six Terracotta Acrobat Figurines found in a Votive Pit at Thmuis    J. Bennett, R. Littman, and J. Silverstein,  The Terracotta Figurines from Tell Timai: 200...

  The Museum entrance with Aurelio Diaz Flores (left), me, and Adolfo (right). The logo of my doctoral study below the museum name, Proyecto Oztuma-Cutzamala, with the ancient glyph name Oztuma featured (the Cave of the Hand, Oztomon, the cave monster with a hand on his nose)          Yesterday, a long-time and dear friend and teacher from the town of Arcelia, Tierra Caliente, Mexico, Raymundo Lopez posted on Facebook that he was teaching the history of his town in class and that my 1998 research was now part of that history.  I swelled with pride. It was a project years in development as I sought out the perfect place in Mexico to apply archaeological methods to the study of frontier formations. It culminated with some  9 months of fieldwork in one of the starkest, most grueling, most challenging, and most dangerous parts of the world I have ever worked. I lost 45 lbs by the end of my survey.  We covered an area of 2500 sq. miles of what had...