Merneptah Stele

Last Monday I sat at the Toyota dealership with my styrofoam cup of coffee and waited as the oil in my car was changed and my state inspection sticker renewed.

Egyptian Revolution
I'm sure I looked a little out of place reading Lost Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums. My dad got this book for me last Christmas, and I've enjoyed reading and rereading it. This week I was refreshing my memory on the
Merneptah Stele. This Egyptian stone tablet was created around 1200 BC and is now in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo.


Dad and I visited the Egyptian Museum when were in Egypt of 2011. We traveled to Egypt just days after President Mubarak stepped down, when the US State Department still advised Americans to avoid travel to Egypt. As tourists we largely had the country to ourselves and other white westerners were few and far between. The road to the museum was lined with tanks and you can see me walking alongside our guide Shaza to get to the museum.


The Boy King
One of the Egyptian Museum's most famous, or perhaps infamous, exhibits is the treasure of King Tutankhamun's tomb. We had read up on the Egyptian Museum before our visit and had heard of the crowds that surround King Tut's treasures. Tour guides must wait outside the room that houses Tut's ornamented funeral mask and sarcophagus in order to slightly reduce the number of people crowding the room. I read several accounts of visitors who were herded through the congested room with only a quick look at Tut's famous gold burial mask. But not us. A guard and three visitors milled about the room with us as we stood face-to-face with Tut's mask and gazed for minutes upon end into the ageless face of the boy king.

Evidence of Israel
After viewing the King Tut collection, Dad and I set off in search of the Merneptah Stele. It is in an out of the way corner in the museum, hard to find and unlabeled. This is likely because it is, to many, just another stone tablet, interesting only in that it is covered in hieroglyphics.

To historians and biblical scholars, however, this stele is significant because it contains the earliest known mention of Israel. Additionally, it is by far the earliest reference to Israel outside of the Bible. The hieroglyph in front of the word Israel is indicative of Israel as a people group rather than a nation, which is consistent with the biblical record.

Please Do Not Touch!
The section of tablet that reads "Israel" is worn black from many hands that have streaked fondly across the surface. This darkening of the stone is evident at the bottom center of the tablet. Clearly I am not the only one fascinated by by this tablet. And if you ask me if I took the opportunity to lightly brush my curled finger across this piece of history, I will adamantly tell you no... And as an aspiring museum professional, I feel I should take this opportunity to point out the damage done to objects by inquisitive hands.

The Merneptah Stele is appreciated both by historians and by the millions of Christians and Jews whose spiritual beliefs are connected intimately with the people of Israel. Because of its incredible biblical significance, this is one of my favorite museum objects that I've seen. Though seeing Tutankhamun's burial mask was yet another amazing experience. And the mummified body of Ramesses II. And... okay, this list could just go on and on. Suffice it to say, with my love for Egyptian history, this museum was amazing and the less than three hours we spent inside was far too short.

One More Post

One more post for the year! I've slacked off a little, as always. And I always wish I had posted more than I did. One of my New Years' resolutions is to blog on a more regular schedule - at least twice a month, though I hope to post even more frequently than that. I do spend a fair amount of time on the computer, and not enough of this time has been spent on this blog. I post often on Facebook, created a Twitter account a few months ago and joined Pinterest last night. I think it's time to come back to blogging!

My first semester of graduate school is completed. I'm one quarter of the way to a masters degree. Wow. I don't feel old enough to be a graduate student, but here I am. I certainly did not mean to go months without a post. I suppose I was busy with classes, papers, exams, work and field trips. Grad school is a lot of work, folks! But I'm surviving. And enjoying it!

Camel at Baylor's Nativity scene

Next semester I will begin several new classes, which I hope will be as enjoyable as my classes this past semester. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'm spending my days learning about museums and getting a degree in museum studies.

The holidays have been wonderful, and I must admit that I am not ready for them to end. We had a wonderful white Christmas (less that a quarter of an inch, but hey, in Texas that counts). I always love spending time with my family and am thankful for this past month.

The snow fell on Christmas Day, but didn't stick. I still say it was a white Christmas.

"Christmas Magic," which appears on our tree at Christmastime

2012 was a year filled with a lot of opportunities and joys as well as sorrows and obstacles. I've found that most years tend to be this way. I am excited to see what 2013 brings, particularly as I continue grad school and seek out an internship.

Happy New Years', everyone!

Summer is Over

Summer is officially over. Actually, my summer ended a little over two weeks ago when I started back to school. Somehow I made it through the entire summer without once swimming in a pool. How sad! I plan to remedy that today, as we have the day off for Labor Day.

It's strange in some ways that I'm now officially a graduate student. In other ways it feels completely normal. School has provided the rhythm for my life for so long that stepping back into it is as easy as can be.

So far I really enjoy my classes, which is a good sign. I love sitting through class learning about the history of the Smithsonian Institution or discussing learning in museums. We have several field trips planned for the semester, so I even get to visit museums as a part of class. How cool is that? Well, it's cool if you're into museums.

This is the Mayborn Museum complex, which houses the university museum and the Museum Studies department. Yes, I took the picture while driving (well, while stopped in my car), so it's not a fantastic photo. The Mayborn is a combination natural science and cultural history museum and a children's discovery center.

My graduate assistantship is in the Armstrong Browning Library and Museum. It's dedicated to Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and houses the largest collection of Browning materials in the world. The building is beautiful and most rooms have stained glass windows. This is one of the two rooms in which I do most of my work.

Last night I enjoyed cheering on the Bears in Baylor's first football game of the season. Although we lost our star quarterback, last year's Heisman Trophy winner, to the NFL, we still beat SMU 59-24. Sic 'em Bears!

All of that to say, I have so far enjoyed my time here at Baylor.

Summer is Baseball

Now this is a great way to spend a summer evening - enjoying some good baseball. Several weeks ago the family headed to Arlington for a baseball game with several hundred other ACU alums (and about 34,000 other fans).

When I headed to college five years ago, I decided that I needed to become a sports fan. I've never been a big sports fanatic, so I chose one sport to follow in particular: baseball. My family still looks at me a little strangely whenever I talk about baseball as it seems so atypical for me. Only a few years ago, I would have given you a blank stare if you mentioned RISP, WHIP, RBI or ERA. And honestly, sometimes I surprise myself a little too, because these days I'm a baseball fan.

"I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us." ~Walt Whitman

Summer is the Olympic Games

I absolutely love the Olympics. I never can quite decide whether I like the summer or the winter games better, as usually I prefer whichever is going on at the time.

1992 Barcelona Olympic Stadium - the only Olympic venue I've visited

I end up spending hours and hours watching gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball and water polo. And, of course, as many of the equestrian events as possible. When I was younger, I dreamed of being an Olympian someday. I wanted to be a figure skater or a gymnast - either would do. I spent a lot of time in our den doing floor exercises, which in my case mostly meant somersaults, handstands and cartwheels. We would line the floor with pillows in order to avoid cracking our heads on the brick wall in the den.

I tend to like swimming and gymnastics better than track and field, so I'm a little disappointed that today is the last day of swimming. We still have the individual gymnastic events to go, so I do have that to look forward to. I've also enjoyed the fact that the games are in London this year. England is my second home, and I've loved seeing images of Great Britain all week.

In all of the moments of glory that we have witnessed in these games, I think my very favourite video so far might be of these parents of gymnast Aly Raisman. Watch this video clip and see if you don't laugh out loud! Trust me, if your sense of humor is anything like mine then it's worth clicking on that link.

Summer is a Cherry Limeade and a Massage

I love Sonic's cherry limeades. I especially like to got during happy hour and get the ginormous Route 44 size. It's probably way more than I need to drink, but I sure do love that tangy lime and sweet cherry refreshment. I always save the actual cherry for last. Yumm. And then I try to tie the stem into a knot with my tongue, which I'm actually pretty good at.

While I have been known to drop by Sonic all year round, there's nothing like an ice cold limeade on 100 degree day. Because summer is a cherry limeade.

And okay, massages really have absolutely nothing to do with summer. But I had my first real massage today, and it was wonderful. One of the girls I work with is a professional masseuse and she gave me an hour-long massage as a going-away gift. I don't know if I've ever been so relaxed before when I haven't been sleeping! It was on the way home from my wonderful massage that I picked up my tasty drink. Together, my cherry limeade and massage made for a lovely summer afternoon.

Summer is an Afternoon Thunderstorm

As I sit typing this, rain is pouring down outside and occasional thunderclaps rumble. I love the sound of rain tapping on the roof, and the knowledge of the relief that this brings to this dry country. The creek I drive across every day is looking more and more like a creek bed every day. Thankfully, we do get a lot of storms during the summer months.

As we've already established, summers in Texas are hot. With this heat comes afternoon thunderstorms, as hot air meet cool, moist air. The hot air rises and cools to form clouds until the raindrops are heavy enough to fall back to earth. Then there's something about electrons and electrostatic discharge and some other sciency stuff that all equals lighting. And thunder is the sound of lighting.

I like thunderstorms. See, I like rolling thunder that rumbles softly in the distance. I like the rain we've received this past week in torrential downpours. And I like the rainbows that so often form with the unique mixture of sun and rain that comes with a Texas thunderstorm.

I am not, however, a huge fan of crashing thunder that rattles windowpanes and cause lights to flicker.
My brother always makes fun of me for being afraid of thunder, though I really can't help my astraphobia. When I was younger, I would clamp a pillow over my head, as tightly as I could, to block out the sound. I'm slightly more mature about it now, but when a huge supercell thunderstorm blew througg earlier this week, Java and I comforted each other while the thunder crashed outside and the lights flickered inside. While I know that thunder itself is not going to hurt me at all, the loud, sudden noise of a thunderclap almost always makes me jump. And, if I'm being honest, sometimes I still squeal a little too.

Even so, I love afternoon thunderstorms, because summer is an afternoon thunderstorm.

As evidence that thunder is indeed frightening I present Exhibit A, my favourite video of the week. Yes, I am aware that a lightning strike in the middle of an open field could be very bad for anyone standing in the middle of said field. Nevertheless, I find this video extraordinarily funny to watch.