July 23

.

The 23rd was "just packed."

I started with a dentist appointment.  While I was waiting, I leafed through Martha Stewart Living, and discovered an article on salt-packed capers.  My daughter learned a lot about capers (and salt-packing them) when she was on the Italian island Pantelleria last fall....

Then it was my turn to get clean teeth -- and the hygienist found a crack in one of my molars, indicating the need for yet another crown.  Sigh....................

It had rained during the night, and had looked like it might rain when I went to the dentist's office, but at lunch time the sky was clear and blue. 

I had lunch with my work buddies.  I always have a good time with them!  It was good to find out what they and their families are up to, and what's going on at work.  I don't mind missing the mandatory HR how-to-be-more-PC-in-the-workplace meetings.  Especially as that's a pretty darn PC place to work, and I bet no one learned anything useful!

After lunch, I visited the University's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, to fulfill my final assignment for Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets.  (The assignment choice was to visit an archaeological site, monument, or museum, and write up that visit.)

The last archaeology museum I visited was the University of Pennsylvania's Museum, which is world-class.  The Kelsey is a nice little museum, but it's not up there with the British Museum.....  Lots more fragments (as opposed to intact objects) at the Kelsey.  Nothing that made me think "I've seen this in (the book version of) A History of the World in 100 Objects!"

Ah well -- we are where we are -- let's enjoy it for what it is.

Blown glass bird-shaped perfume bottles. ("1st-2nd century AD, Puteoli, Italy")  Wouldn't it have been fun to watch this artisan at work?  I've seen lots of solid glass animals, but am not sure I've seen blown glass animals....

22-27 are glass game pieces.  ("1st-5th century AD, Egypt."  -- with that skimpy info, I'm supposing the context for these objects was lost.....)

Glass bangles.  (with shadows!)  ("8th-10th century AD or later.  Egypt."  Even worse than the previous, for lost context.  Very sad -- so much of what we could have known about these objects and what they had to say about the people who made them and used them is apparently gone.....)

Cool slaunchy jug.  I love the lean, and I love the way the rather precise bottle contrasts with the very fluid handle.  ("1st-2nd century AD.  Egypt")

More jugs.  (#3 "Core-formed pitcher.  5th century BC.  Syria(?)"  #4 "Free-blown jug.  4th-5th century AD.  Egypt."  Again we note a sad lack of context.  Syria-with-a-question-mark, and ... Egypt is a big place.........)

I had heard of 2000-yr-old lentils, but hadn't known anyone had found this variety of ancient foodstuffs.  ("1-4th century AD. Karanis, Egypt")  #16 – peach pits, #17 – peas, #18 – garlic, #19 – gourd, #20 – lentils, according to the legend.  I think #20 looks a lot more like peppercorns than lentils!  Nothing lentil-shaped about these!  (26 is a fragment of linen cloth, and 27 is partly linen and partly wool.)

I wonder if any of these seeds would grow.....

Amphora.  The Kelsey has a lot of intact amphorae.  This is working on being a yard tall, I think.  ("Olive Oil Amphora (Brindisi Type).  Roman Period (late 2nd-early 1st century BC).  Origin:  Apulia, Italy; findspot:  Karanis, Egypt.  This amphora originated in southern Italy.  One handle is stamped HRAIOC, the name of a Greek who may have been a slave-potter, and the other with the Latin name of BATON, who was prbably a member of the amphora workshop of C. Aninias at Apani in Apulia.  These stamps also help document the trade in oil.  THe HRAIOC stamp has been found at several sites in Apulia, in Egypt including Alexandria and the Fayum, and in Portugal.  The BATON stamp is known in Marseille in the south of France.")

LOTS of into about this one, in comparison to the little glass objects above!  This is the first time I've noticed info  about the "findspot" as well as the origin of the object.

I took this pic because I thought these were odd, for Roman ceramics.  My perspicacious better half asked me where they were from, and only then did I read the label (captured in a pic) and discover they were made in Cologne, Germany.  Well then!  They (particularly the one on the right) look very Germanic to me.  No wonder I thought they looked odd for "Roman"..........

("Black-slipped Beaker.  Roman Period (mid 2nd-early 4th century AD.  Cologne, Germany"  "The letters once read SVCEME, a greeting that perhaps translates as 'Taste Me.' ")

Professor Laurel Bestock is one of Sue Alcock's colleagues at Brown University.  I mentioned that Sue interviewed her colleagues about each unit's archaeological topic, allowing us to hear about the differences in doing their work in totally different parts of the world.  Dr. B. works in Abydos, in Egypt.  She told us that almost everything is preserved perfectly in Egypt, with the exception of wood.  There are termites in Egypt which almost always get the wood.

So I was surprised to see several wooden objects from Egypt at the Kelsey.

I'd seen this sort of conical glass vessel before, but never was sure what they were for.  I'd certainly never seen a stand for one, until the 23rd.  ("Conical Lamp in Stand; glass, wood; Roman Period (1st-4th centuries AD); Karanis, Egypt")

("Box with Lid.  Wood.  Roman Period (1st-4th century AD).  Karanis, Egypt.")

("Bust of Serapis (Furniture Ornament).  Wood, clay, gold leaf.  Roman Period (late 2nd-early 3rd century AD.  Fayum Region, Egypt.")

Ancient flip-flop, with knife blade.  ("Knife Blade.  Bronze." and "Sandal. Palm Fiber."  both from "Roman Period (1st-4th century AD).  Karanis, Egypt.")

I liked the big leafy decoration on the side of this big Greek pot (it must be over 2' tall).  (I failed to capture the info describing this one.)

I saw the big swirly stuff, and the white dots, but didn't notice the very fluid sketchy lines in the woman's garment until I saw this "on the big screen".........  Interesting, all the different sorts of decoration (including the squared-off stuff near the bottom).....

Very modern-looking owl.  (#18 "Drinking Cup (Skyphos) with Owl.  Clay, Attic red figure.  Ca. 450-400 BC"  #20 "Athenian Coin (Obverse: Athena).  Silver tetradrachm.  449-413 BC.")  The info said that owls are symbolic of Athena (and, therefore, Athens) but there was no info about where these were made or found.....

We were told coins are "the archaeologists' friends" as they so often make it possible to date things quite precisely.  #20 has the most precise date of anything I saw on the 23rd.



I admired the decoration on this pot.  One can get neat circles and spirals by putting an object on the potter’s wheel and slowly spinning the wheel, touching the object with a brush loaded with iron oxide (in water) as it (and the wheel) spin.  I wonder if that’s how this pot was decorated, all those years ago.  ("Iron Age Pottery, Cypro-Geometric-Cypro-Archaic, 1050-480 BC")

I stopped in at the Kelsey's gift shop, and had a nice chat with someone I know from the local wool (and other fibers) spinning guild.  She's been working at the Kelsey for a long time.  She told me that one of the guys who works there also works at Abydos.  I bet he knows Dr. Bestock (but maybe not, I know Abydos is a really big site).



Time to go home.



Oh.  Goodness.  The sky was bright and blue when I walked into the museum; I wasn't expecting to step out and find this!

It's not actually raining.  Yet.  Let's see if I can make it to the library (a few blocks from the Kelsey).

Cool chartreuse plants outside the Kelsey.  You can tell I wasn't TOO worried about making it to the library.

There's half an hour between the previous pic and the next one.  I should have hustled to the library instead of taking pics of cool plants................

The minute it started to rain I put the camera in the zip-lock bag that lives (with the camera, the extra batteries, and the extra memory chip) in my fanny pack.

As I got to the corner of William and Division, the sky opened up.  From there to the middle of the next block west, where the University of Michigan's Credit Union is, I got DRENCHED.    I dodged into the Credit Union to wait for the rain to stop.  I was totally soaked from the waist up (and "merely wet" below -- except for my feet,which were drenched).

I really wish I could have taken some pics through the Credit Union windows.  There is an asphalt parking lot right outside the door.  I could see the big drops of rain rebounding up from that dark pavement........  But I was absolutely dripping, and didn't see how I could possibly touch the camera without getting it wetter than it would like to be........

Then the sun came out, while it was still pouring right down, and you could see the rebound from the drops even more clearly.  Annoying, to be too wet to feel it would be safe for the camera if I were to use it!

Ah well.

The rain stopped, and I walked on home.  I was glad for even intermittent sunshine; it was a very pleasant temperature on the 23rd, and, since I was all wet, I felt a bit cool.



Love these colors together.  Coneflowers, with grass.

Wet daylilies.

Love these long skinny curvy petals.

I know I walked Willard when I got home, and I think it had clouded back up by then, but I didn't take any more pictures, so I can't remember any more of what happened on the 23rd.  I guess what I've already told you is enough to be "a pretty exciting day."


.