On Growling at Kids and Unintentionally Hilarious Letters

Grrrrrrrrrrrr...

I love making school visits and I've been fortunate to have several recently. At St. John Neumans Regional Catholic School, I met with students K-8 (not at all at once, thank goodness!).

Obviously, I told different stories to different age groups: for the K-2, I focused on the story of how Alexander tamed the wild horse, and of how he "took" the Sogdian Rock in Afghanistan with the "Soldiers with Wings" story.

The young ones squealed with delight when I put on my replica warrior helmet and growled at them.

For the 3th - 5th, I focused on the deliciously gross details of mummification and the strange and funny facts about the ancient world that they won't read in about in most books. For the middle school kids, I talked more about Cleopatra's Moon and the challenge and opportunity of writing historical fiction. Thanks to media specialist-extraordinaire ,Janet Kent, for a wonderful visit!

With some of the students at St. Jude.

Before spring break, I also visited the sixth-graders at St. Jude, thanks to another awesome media specialist, Eleonora Straub. The kids had studied ancient history earlier in the year and their faces lit up every time they made a connection with something I said and their previous lessons.

Recently, I received a thank you note from a nine-year old whom I'd given a special tour at the galleries at the Carlos Museum (along with his mom, Tanya Valentine, and his four-year old brother, Benjamin).

It's so cute, I have to share it with you:

Dear Mrs. Shecter,


Thank you for the special tour of the Carlos Museum. I enjoyed it a lot. Sorry my brother didn't enjoy it as much as I did. If it looked like I was bored, I wasn't, that's just how I look when I'm dehydrated.

Sincerely, Charlie

And he put hieroglyphic symbols on top of every word! That letter makes me smile every time I think about it. I want to use that line about being dehydrated sometime. It's going to come in handy some day, I just know it!

So teachers, media specialists, and parents--invite me to your school. There's nothing I love more than sharing my love of history with your kids.

The Darker Side of Greek Myths

When I tour school children through our museum's classical galleries, I tread carefully around some of the uglier aspects of Greek mythology. I might say something like, "Zeus fell in love with Europa and took her to Crete." Or, "Zeus loved Leda and came to her as a swan, etc., etc."

In other words, I tiptoe around the fact that the head god of the ancient Greeks was actually a serial rapist. After all, whenever, Zeus "fell in love" with a beautiful young woman (or young man), he "took" her (or him) without asking. Because he could.

Of course, it's not my place to shatter the illusion that the Greek myths are anything other than outrageously fascinating and fun stories from worlds long gone. (There's college for that!)

Yet by telling these stories without pointing out their inherent violence against (mostly) women, I wonder if I'm somehow contributing to a culture that continues to blame the victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators.

Imagine, for example, Europa in a court of law trying to gain justice...

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Teen Sex, Occupy Wall Street, Linsanity and...Ancient Rome?

I was honored to be invited back to be the keynote speaker at the West Virginia Junior Classical League (JCL) convention last week.  My talk?  "Why We are All Ancient Romans in Drag."

Despite the above headline, my talk was totally PG, and it seemed to go over really well. I talked about some of the not so obvious ways that Roman thinking still resonates in our world today (and that's all I'll say for now in an obvious and shameless attempt at eliciting more JCL speaking engagements!).

One young man came up to me afterward to tell me he found my talk "really fascinating." He conveyed this as if bestowing a blessing on me and then walked away. Given that Latin students who attend JCL conferences tend to be very bright and well-read, I considered this a supreme compliment.
 
I always love the ancient-dress fashion parade at JCL conventions. My individual favorite was "Gangsta Goddess" who strutted in with attitude to spare (sadly, I couldn't get a good shot of her highness).

My "team" favorite were the "priests" carrying a shrouded Vestal Virgin to her death chamber. They had caught her, they announced, outside in the hallway with her boyfriend. Ha!

I also loved the Funeral Procession re-enactment, complete with dead body/creepy wrapped mannequin (that's the spot on the floor--sorry the photo is so dark!). I'd secretly hoped some of the kids would let it rip as professional mourners--Romans paid to wail and screech and pull out their hair in honor of the dead.  But they left that out, likely afraid that the hotel staff might call 911 on 'em.

The procession--including "family members" wearing death masks of ancestors--was a serious and solemn affair. The ancient Romans would've been proud.

Although I love doing school/author visits and giving students tours of the Greek/Roman galleries at the Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University, I think I love working with the folks from the JCL the most. 

Go JCL!

Friday Funnies--Ancient Style!

Nothing against vegetarians (love ya, Judi)

--just thought this was funny. 

Plus it had the word ancient in it!

via stumblepod.com

(Thankfully never heard a kid say anything like that at the Carlos Museum! But we've come close!)

This comic made me think of Justin Beiber's current "scandal."

(Why I even know about such things is, admittedly, very scary.)

Friday Funny

Today's Friday Funny is courtesy of Brent Tozzer. After my tour of high school students at the Michael C. Carlos Museum this morning, I stopped by the book shop to say hello to Brent, bookseller extraordinaire. With fellow docent, Pat Stone, we chatted about the wonderful mummy upstairs in the Old Kingdom exhibit.

"He's so extraordinary!" I commented. "I never get tired of looking at him."

"He's featured in KMT (Egyptology) magazine," Pat pointed out. "They've got some wonderful photos."

Brent smirked slightly, as if holding in a chuckle.

"What?" I asked. "Don't you love him him too?"

"Of course," he said. "Burt's great."

"Burt?"

"Yeah. You know. Like Burt Reynolds in that photo he took for Playgirl. That's how the mummy is posing."


Upon which my brain exploded:

Nekkid Burt Reynolds

4,000 year old mummy.

Yeah. And Brent, just so you know, I will never be able to UNSEE this so, um....thanks?

:-)

Sleeping Mummies and Magical Dolls

Today, I toured a group of second and third-grade students through the Carlos Museum's Egyptian galleries. We started with our new exhibit, "Life and Death in the Pyramid Age" and my favorite mummy of all time, our sleeping beauty:

Isn't he just magnificent? He really looks like he's about to sit up, swing his legs over and walk out, doesn't he?

At 4,000 years old, this guy was around during the dynasty when the Great Pyramids were built.

Before we entered the gallery, I debunked myths about mummy curses and walking mummies, which reassured the littlest ones who seemed a bit nervous about seeing a "real, live mummy." As expected, they "oooh-ed" and "aaaah-ed" over him. 

"He looks like he's taking a nap and just needs his blanket," one kid said.

They were most surprised, though, by the models buried with mummies--including the bread-bakers and beer brewers.

"Are they dolls?" they asked.

"Nope," I told 'em. "They're models of workers put into the tombs. In the afterworld, the pharaoh would point to them and they would  magically come to life and serve him."

They liked that kind of magic. I over-heard a couple of them mumbling about models for "cleaning-up-your-room" and "doing-your-homework-for-you."

I love kids.

Hot Enough to Melt Metal

Griffins, bulls and monsters, oh my!

Hundreds of adults and children lined up last Friday evening--and even paid a small fee--to cover themselves in dust and watch men in fire-proof uniforms melt metal in a glowing cauldron of unimaginable heat.

It was a "Bronze Pour" at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in celebration the museum's exhibit, Monsters, Demons and Winged Beasts: Creatures of the Ancient World.

For inspiration, the galleries were opened up during the evening. Folks swarmed around minotaurs, sirens, centaurs, gorgons, griffins and all sorts of fascinating and fearsome creatures from the ancient world, most of them cast in bronze.

Then it was our turn to try our hands at creating bronze creatures. More than 100 sand molds were snapped up as kids and adults alike got to work carving creatures, crests, or family symbols. By the time most of us finished carving, we were covered in dust. But such is the price of art, right?

Cooking metal at 2,500 degrees.

As we worked, the folks at the Inferno (great name!) Foundry heated up the metal to a whopping 2,500 degrees. It's hard to tell here (left), but the flames shone green because of the copper.

The liquid metal cooled surprisingly quickly.

When the bronze was sufficiently melted, they laid out the molds and began pouring. The molten metal glowed, then cooled and hardened enough for the artisans to break the molds and dump the still blazing metal pieces into a small sand pit to cool.

While we waited for our masterpieces to finish cooling, we snacked on bar-b-q and drinks, provided by the museum.

Eventually, our bronze creations cooled enough to let us "artisans" handle them. We were given brushes to clean and shine the metal. At the foundry, they sand-blast their work until the metal gleams. Obviously, a small wire brush was no match, so our bronze pieces ended up appearing to have a patina of age.

Ticked-off Starbuck's mermaid at least won't turn you into stone.

My piece was inspired by a stone carving of Medusa. But, since I'm no artist, she ended up looking like a ticked-off version of the Starbuck's mermaid. Oh well.

Still, it was an amazing program that drew a seemingly endless stream of adults, children, artists and college students.

The museum is also hosting a summer camp for teens where they will create their own 3-D metal monsters with the ancient "lost-wax" technique of bronze casting.

For more information on the monsters exhibit or summer camps, go here: http://www.carlos.emory.edu/child-family-programs.

The Real Reason Ancient Egyptians Stuffed their Tombs with Food

What were in those small cases anyway?

When the Tut exhibit came to Atlanta a couple of years ago, I lingered over the exquisite black and white photos of Howard Carter's discoveries at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory, where I am a docent.

I always paused at the photo of the tomb's antechamber, with its jumble of dismantled chariots and gilded couches pushed haphazardly against the wall.

What was in all those small mummy cases stuffed under the gilded lion couch? Oh man, I thought, please tell me that they are not stuffed with the bodies of small children sent along with the pharaoh into the afterlife!

They were not, thank goodness. Instead, they contained sides of mummified beef. So, you know, if the pharaoh wanted a steak, his servants needed only to travel to the antechamber instead of slaughtering one in the parallel world of eternal life sometimes called the Field of Reeds.

Not everyone was rich enough to stuff a tomb with food. (In fact, not everyone was rich enough to have a tomb at all. By the Ptolemaic era, folks were standing their mummified relatives in the corners of rooms. But that's a different post.)

It turns out that in the Field of Reeds, rich and poor alike got equal plots of fertile land--and presumably farm animals--that would sustain them forever. Everyone tilled their own plots.

But the rich would consider no such thing. (Work? What's that?) So they stuffed their tombs with food and beer. Because they could. And because they didn't want to dirty their hands by actually working. They must have figured that between what they brought with them and the offerings made to them by grieving family members, they'd be flush for eternity.

Fascinating right? But here's the thing that almost slipped right by me. The Egyptian afterworld gave everyone an equal plot of land, no matter their class or station. It was a democratic afterworld! (Starting from the New Kingdom on, anyway.)

It didn't matter whether you were a poor peasant or a rich noble, everyone got the same amount of fertile land to call his or her own. The rich, of course, tried to make themselves "more equal" by finding ways to avoid tilling their fields.

Still, what a remarkable thing--a democratic afterlife! Was this he first instance of an afterworld conceived as such? Why would a people so rigid, hierarchical and conservative--with their rule-by-kings politics--imagine an afterworld where everyone had equal resources? Where they influenced by other cultures? Which ones? Whom did they influence in turn?

If I had all the time in the world, I would throw myself into trying to find answers to these questions. But I don't (carpool starts tomorrow!). And my WIP is calling. Plus, I have to get the word out about my current and upcoming books. 

But if anyone knows more about this unique detail of Egyptian afterlife, I'd love to hear it!

Source: Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt by R. David.

Kids, Crowns and Cleopatra

Check out the awesome snake neck-
lace courtesy of my novel editor
in New York.

    The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University hosted a program for kids this past Sunday based on my book. We started off with a short reading and discussion.  
    Even though there was a great age range (3rd to 9th grade!), I was impressed by the kids' knowledge and interest in the ancient world.
    After questions, we scooted down to the galleries where I gave a private tour for the group of enthusiastic kids (and some of their parents) of our Ptolemaic artifacts.  The mummies, of course, are always the star attraction! However, the kids seemed to really enjoy the conversation about scarab beetles (aka, dung/poop beetles) and their significance. The younger ones couldn't stop giggling when I told them this was their only chance to say "poop" in the museum without getting in trouble. Needless to say, the mummy room echoed softly with the word as they got it out of their system (not literally, of course).
     The older kids enjoyed learning about Anubis and the Weighing of the Heart test. All seemed curious, engaged and appeared to have a great time.

        After the tour, it was back upstairs to make crowns and diadems.

Fellow docent Robey Tapp led the kids in this extremely creative project that involved gold poster paper, cut gold-foil (many times thicker than aluminum foil) for the snakes, stick on jewels, brilliant markers, and lots of beads.
     Check out some of the results:

     A big thank you to Nina West (left), Robey (right) and the museum's Education Department for hosting this wonderful event!

Don't forget about the book giveaway!  See post below, enter a comment for that post and you 

could win a free copy of Cleopatra Rules! for yourself or your school.

Rick Riordan's Magic

Riordan’s latest book had an initial press run of 1 million copies. Can you even imagine? One million in the first printing.

The man who single-handedly inspired countless kids to discover the magic of Greek mythology with his Percy Jackson series is about to do it again with his new series on Egyptian gods and monsters.

Riordan was in Atlanta recently promoting THE RED PYRAMID. Nearly 1,200 kids and their families showed up. Wait. Let me repeat that. More than 1,000 kids chose to meet an author over playing video games, watching TV, or whatever else they could’ve been doing.

The Carlos Museum at Emory University raffled off a private tour with Rick and I had the honor of tag-teaming the tour through our Greek and Egyptian galleries with him. It was a blast.

After his speech, Rick signed oh, about 800 to 1,000 books, saving a smile for each awe-struck child that approached him. Not to sound too star struck myself, but he was pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, I have a signed copy of Rick’s latest that I want to give-away as soon as I figure out how other bloggers do these things. But (in case my editor reads this) I am much too busy—yessiree—way too busy working on those edits right now to figure out the details.

So, keep an eye out for details on how you can win a free autographed copy of THE RED PYRAMID. Later. My novel is calling...