#Calling for Egyptologists!

[ktempestbradford]

Ancient Egypt and Ostrich Feathers

Have a question for the Egyptologists and knowledgeable fans of Ancient Egypt about ostrich feathers.

(btw is there an Egyptologist Tumblr community? I follow @thatlittleegyptologist but don't know of any other accounts. HMU!)

When I was in Egypt last month I went to the Grand Egyptian Museum to take the very limited tour of the atrium they offer now. It... wasn't worth the money. Anywho, our tour guide did his best to make it seem valuable by talking a LOT about each thing he showed us.

Next to the colossal statue of Ramses II that dominates the atrium there's a table showing the emblems of royal iconography. The sun disk, the nemes headdress, cow horns, and a feather. He asks us if we know what that last one is and I or someone says it's the feather of Ma'at. Correct! Do we know what bird it comes from? The ostrich, someone else says. Why did they choose ostrich feathers for Ma'at and also certain crowns?

On this trip I had gone to the Nubian museum and thus had just seen several pieces of art from pre-historical peoples that utilized ostrich eggs, including a famous one that had three pyramids etched into it along with some animals. So I said something like: The ostrich has been an important animal even before the pharaohs. They relied on it for food and made art with the eggs. The tour guide (Mark) said: That's an awfully materialistic view. No, that's not why.

Now... I know I'm not an expert even though I know a lot about ancient Egypt. But "a materialistic view"? Like somehow it's not enough that ostriches provided food and probably were used in other, important ways? Why do you think Hathor is represented as a cow and there are cow horns incorporated in crowns? Because they look cool? wtf?

Mark then goes on to tell this story. Back in the dawn of civilization in Egypt the Egyptian man didn't have much to do during the day. (eyebrow raise) So he started collecting feathers from all the birds that flew above him in the sky. (...um... wait...) He would collect and then count the barbules and do you know what he discovered? Only the ostrich had the same number of them on both sides. That's why this is the feather of balance and justice.

Friends. I have never wanted to scream SHENANIGANS or at least CITE YOUR SOURCES so much in my life. Like... what?

Leaving aside the implication that ostriches were somehow flying above ancient Egyptians or that there was some point where men didn't have a dang thing to do all day but count the little hairs on feathers, I feel like this explanation is complete hooey. I mean, it could be that all or some of an ostrich's feathers have the same amount of barbules on either side of the middle bit. You might even be able to convince me that this isn't true for any other bird that someone from the Nile valley 6,000+ years ago had access to. But I'm going to need a ton of supporting evidence that this is the sole reason why the feather of Ma'at is an ostrich feather and not for the "materialistic" reasons I cited.

Also, I'm sorry, but I'm real sure predynastic Nile valley dwellers were far more concerned about food and shelter than coming up with complex reasons for using a certain kind of feather to represent a metaphysical thing.

However, I could be wrong! So I'm asking: is there evidence for Mark's version of events? Is this, you know, written somewhere in a papyrus or on a temple wall or another place? I would honestly love to read any papers on this subject, whatever the background on it.

As to the Grand Egyptian Museum, I really hope that whoever they hire to give tours when the whole thing opens are better at this than Mark. I wasn't impressed with his tour overall and eventually gave up listening to him once I saw that there was a gelato place open for business inside.

[thatlittleegyptologist]

This probably has a pretty obvious answer but I need to know - how do we know how to write in ancient Egyptian? What I mean is, we can read hieroglyphs because of Rossetta stone, but wouldn't that only show us what certain words mean in another language that we do understand, not how it's actually spelled? With names I assume it's easy, but what about actual words, when all we have are symbols and what they correlate with in another language, not actual letters. Sorry if half of that was incorrect, English is not my first language.

I think where your problem lies is that you understand that the Rosetta Stone helped crack the code of reading hieroglyphs, but you're unaware that there were other sources too. I will also say that for Hieroglyphs, the 'symbols' are the letters, we just didn't know their values.

The Rosetta Stone allowed scholars, for the first time, to see three parallel texts all in different scripts. The only one at the time that could be read was the Greek script, so, working with the simple things first, they were able to map the name 'Ptolemy' between all three texts and then started with other words. Once they understood 'okay well this word means king, but we don't know how it sounds' is when they began to use those other sources I mentioned.

One of these sources was another language that is a known descendent of Old/Middle/Late Egyptian and is called Coptic. Now Coptic is still spoken and written, though it is not as widespread as it used to be, so what happened was that Champollion studied it to see how the language worked and how those words sounded. Prior to this, it was decided that each Hieroglyphic sign couldn't be an individual word but had to have a phonetic sound value that when combined in groups formed words. So, armed with that knowledge, Champollion began to find words that appear on the stone and that also appear in Coptic to see if there were similarities. He also looked at how they were using Hieroglyphs to spell known Greek names (like Ptolemy and Cleopatra) because that's a huge indication of a phonetic value of a sign. With Coptic, he knew that the word for 'sun' was 'ⲣⲉ' or 're' and believed that the 𓇳 sign was that of the sun in Hieroglyphs. The contexts in which they were used matched, so it seemed certain that the sign meant 're' or 'ra'.

In his work on deciphering Ptolemy's name in the Hieroglyphs (written as Ptolmes) the 𓋴 sign he'd designated as having the phonetic value of 's' also appeared in the same name at Abu Simbel he'd seen the 𓇳 sign, thus meaning he could potentially read the name 𓇳𓄟𓋴𓋴. We did have names of some kings at this time, and one of them was very well known to be 'Ramesses', thus armed with a sign he knew to be 're' and another he knew to be 's', Champollion surmised that this group of Hieroglyphs must be the name 'Ramesses'. He suggested the 𓄟 must be 'm' and he got further confirmation came from the Rosetta Stone, where the m and s signs appeared together at a point corresponding to the word for "birth" in the Greek, and from Coptic, in which the word for "birth" was ⲙⲓⲥⲉ (mise). We know now that 𓄟 on it's own has the phonetic value of 'ms' so he was pretty close! Another name he used this on was 𓅝𓄟𓋴. The first sign was already known to represent the god Thoth, and taking what he'd learnt from the name Ramesses the two signs at the end must be 'ms' thus making 'thothmes'. Again, known from Mantheo was a king's name 'Thutmosis' so it was very likely to be the same name. From here, he started finding similar Greek and Coptic words and then seeing what they looked like in the hieroglyphs to decipher them and assign them phonetic values. He wasn't entirely right about these. In the latter half of the 19th Century, once Egyptologists had become more comfortable with Hieroglyphs, they were able to see Champollion's mistakes. Champollion believed that each sign only had one value like our alphabet. This was wrong! Signs can have up to 4-consonantal values, but most have only have 2-3 consonantal values. This was demonstrated above with the 𓄟 sign, which Champollion thought was just 1-consonant 'm' but it turned out to be the 2-consonant 'ms'.

After this, it was basically a lot of work understanding how the language fit together (i.e. where the pronouns/definite articles/particles etc) and then we were constantly correcting/updating our understanding of the values of the signs until pretty recently. It still happens to this day, but it's much more infrequent. I think there's only been two changes since 2007 that I know of. These changes are also why Egyptologists will tell you not to use earlier linguistic work unless you know what you're looking at. We're a baby discipline (only just 200 years!) and so a lot of stuff from even 80 years ago is so massively out of date and incorrect (Budge, it's E.A.Wallis Budge) that we beg people not to touch it with a barge pole.

[hsllfirescoopsreblogs]

╰┈➤ 18+ none of these stories belong to me! this is a masterlist of all the moon knight boys stories i’ve read and reblogged! just thought it would be nice to have them all in one spot! (if your fic is on here and you wish not to be, please let me know!) some will have summaries if provided <3

a/n: so embarrassing please ignore this. this is the same post. i couldn’t edit it whatsoever. some links weren’t working so i deleted the original. so i apologize for doing this again and retagging writers. (had to split it into two parts)

MASTERLIST • OSCAR ISAAC CHARACTERS • 05/04/24

☾ moon knight one

☾ moon knight three

☾ @laaundromat

☼ building love

⭒ Steven has unconsciously set himself up on a date with his crush.

☾ @storiesforallfandoms

☼ how things are

⭒ now that they’ve learned how to share the body, they must come to terms with the fact that they also have to share their wife

☾ @little-worm-grant

☼ uncomplicated

⭒ Deep down you knew Jake wouldn’t be calling if he didn’t think he needed you. Or maybe that’s what you told yourself to make it more tolerable to be out of your warm bed at this hour.

☾ @mccn-bcys

☼ just a touch of your hand part 2 part 3

⭒ when you turn eighteen, an ink stain appears on your skin wherever your soulmate touches you for the first time. the boys each are dealing with their stain in their own way.

☼ sensual pleasure?

⭒ your friends take you to the museum but you never were interested in the history. Until your friend introduces you to a cute gift-shoppist who gives you little history lessons. Suddenly, a ring sparks becomes a little more than a cool item he showed you.

☾ @missdictatorme

☼ open my eyes

⭒ Jake and Steven were more than happy when you agreed to be in a relationship with them, but Marc barely fronts when you're near. Will he warm up to you over time?

☼ third ones the charm part 2

⭒ Jake Lockley was fine. Really. Marc and Steven are happy with their girlfriend and he's okay staying in the shadows. He's used to staying in the shadows. He managed to stay hidden from the boys for years, but lately something makes him take control more and more. Or rather, someone makes him take control more and more.

☼ the thin line

⭒ Steven and Marc are literally glowing with happiness since they were in a relationship with you. Jake is mostly annoyed and is constantly trying to make you leave. Marc and Steven are having none of it.

☾ @wysteria-clad

☼ our little thing

⭒ you have a specific thing with each of them. It's not like you don't do it with other two, but you do enjoy a little act of intimacy that is special to each of them.

☾ @m00nsbaby

☼ the already over series

☼ weightless

⭒ The feeling of being trapped goes beyond the ankle bracelet that keeps him tied to the bed.

☾ @bruhstories

☼ canonic jar

⭒ marc is exasperated by you, but he needs to behave because you're steven's girlfriend.

☾ @eyelessfaces

☼ formal wear

☾ @bensolosbluesaber

☼ the jake problem part 2

⭒ Jake hates you. Like really hates you, which wouldn’t be a problem if you weren’t dating Steven and Marc. But maybe, just maybe, Jake doesn’t hate you.

☾ @starryeyedstories

☼ talk deity to me

⭒ You’re an Egyptologist invited to the museum to give a talk to a group of school kids, and Steven might have a bit of a crush on you.

☾ @juneknight

☼ dozing

⭒ A man falls asleep on you during your bus ride to work. 

☾ @januaryembrs

☼ i should have been there

⭒ Marc had always carried her with him, since they were small kids playing pirates in the yard, before things got messed up by grown up feelings and burdens. It's not until he sees her twenty years later, he realizes he should have saved her.

☾ @redeyerhaenyra

☼ sleeping beauty

⭒ After having sex with Jake, you both fall asleep in your flat. Only, it's not Jake that wakes up, it's Steven.

☾ @writefightandflightclub

☼ shadow of a doubt

⭒ marc was first. steven was second. khonshu’s never going to love you. …and you’re wondering if jake will ever get there at all.

☼ no fish were harmed in the making of this meet cute

⭒ You have a dilemma. You don’t want to sell the man any more fish. But you do want him to keep coming back to your shop

☾ @bits-and-babs

☼ chocolate

⭒ After weeks of pining for your coworker Steven Grant, sharing chocolate over a late shift causes sparks to fly.

☼ bumpy ride

⭒ The handsome man who you see on your commute to work every day is always on your mind.

☾ @spctrsgf

☼ cake

☾ @thatsthewrongwallcraig

☼ a night at the museum

⭒ After asking you out, Steven invites you to a private tour of the National Art Gallery.

☾ @thatredheadwriter

☼ on the mat

⭒ You’re Marc and Steven’s ‘guy in the chair’ for lack of a better term, helping them with all things techy. When you get injured trying to help on a mission, Marc decides you need to learn how to take care of yourself so it doesn’t happen again. Gym training with Marc turns into something else entirely.

☼ mine

⭒ The suit, the suit is amazing. Honestly it is. But you can’t help but be the slightest bit annoyed when it erases the marks you leave all over him. Lucky for you, Steven’s more than happy to let you have another go.

☼ outnumbered

⭒ You’re Layla’s adoptive sister, and Marc’s former lover. Being reunited with both of them stirs up some old feelings, but that gets pushed to the backburner when you’re severely injured during a fight. But things tend to boil over when they’re left too long, so what happens when you have some time alone with Marc.

☾ @ivystoryweaver

☼ spectre series

⭒ Marc Spector and his alters Steven and Jake have lost the love of their lives. They each try to move on, in their own way, but getting over you is the hardest thing they've ever faced. Marc starts to see you everywhere - he's haunted by your memory. No, literally, why are you sitting on the end of his bed? He believes in ancient deities, seeing how Jake still serves one as Moon Knight. But ghosts?

☾ @asimplearchivist

☼ first kiss

⭒ there was no possible way that you could have romantic feelings for steven. right?

☼ sad ending

⭒ you and jake enjoy having movie nights, but he has the habit of spoiling the endings for you. this time is different, though.

☼ speed dating

⭒ you're down in the dumps about the disheartening lack of prospective romantic partners interested in initiating a long-term relationship with you. your ever-helpful coworker amy decides to give you (and a highly interested would-be suitor) a nudge in the right direction—just not in the way you might expect.

☼ is that my shirt?

⭒ you and the boys have a set of rules. jake doesn’t like it when you break them.

☾ @luc-k-y

☼ stop looking at me like that part 2

☼ anything for you

☾ @campingwiththecharmings

☼ insomnia

⭒ Steven can't sleep and you, uh, help him out.

☾ @peterthepark

☼ each time you fall in love

⭒ you play mercenaries with marc. you play lovers with jake. you play house with steven. you suppose romance comes in all forms of their differing love for you.

☾ @ofstarsandvibranium

☼ to the rescue

⭒ showing up on Stevens date from the first episode

☾ @oddballwriter

☼ unexpected addition

⭒ Steven and Marc know about Jake's existence and they have been trying to get used to him and get to know him, and during a mission where they need help they found out Jake has been having like a long term relationship with the reader (who is Sekhmet's avatar)

☾ @sailorkamino

☼ hospital bed confessions

⭒ As long as Jake can remember he's only had Marc and Steven to protect - then you came into the picture. Jake is scared to admit just how much you mean to him until you're injured, then he can no longer hide his feelings.

☾ @angel-of-the-moons

☼ a rose under the moon

⭒ You've waited your whole life to meet your soulmate. You just didn't know your soulmate was so close by, all this time.

But...How the hell can you handle being thrown into a world full of gods and magic? You're just a shopkeeper! Why is your heart being tugged by three different threads?

☾ @psithurista

☼ stuck

⭒ You stop by Steven’s place one night after work. Somebody else answers his door.

☾ @reallyrallyauthor

☼ the coffee incident part 2 part 3

⭒ No coffee in the morning leads to a mystery for Marc, an apology from Jake, and guilt from Steven.

☼ paying your debt

⭒ Moon Knight saved your life, and now you're Marc Spector's glorified assistant. But when you pick him up one night after a fight, you get to feel the suit first hand, and what he keeps underneath it.

☼ free lunch

⭒ You're teaching Steven how to drive, but he’s so tense that you absolutely have to get him to relax first

☼ cupcake man

⭒ Jake helps his favorite bartender out w/ a problem they can’t solve themselves (which I like to imagine is Jake’s #1 all-time favorite hobby)

☼ bad girl

⭒ Jake has a smoking kink, and a way for you to indulge him without consequences.

☼ a friend

⭒ You and Marc Spector have a purely physical relationship. Both operating in society’s gray area, you try to avoid conflicts of interest. But when you’re hired to steal an artifact from a London museum, you wonder if even Marc himself knows all of his secrets.

☼ museum date

⭒ Marc gets set up on a blind date at an art museum

☼ slow songs

⭒ Your friend, Marc, pretends to be your boyfriend at a wedding, but is it pretend?

☼ here we go series

☾ @bit-dodgy-innit

☼ the shape of youniverse

⭒ A full blown AU of forging a life and family with a post-Khonshu Moon Boys that’s as heartfelt as it is filth.

☾ @the-little-ewok

☼ tilt part 2 part 3 part 4

⭒ Steven Grant wants to tell you the truth about why he missed your date, but it isn't Steven you meet... 

hopefully all links work, let me know if not <3

[blueiskewl]

The Tomb of a Royal Scribe Discovered in Egypt

Czech experts have made another important discovery in the Egyptian archaeological site in Abusir. They found the hitherto unexplored tomb of the royal scribe Dzhehutiemhat, which is richly decorated in the form of many hieroglyphic texts and images. They mainly consist of ritual and religious texts, which were supposed to ensure the soul of the deceased an eternal life in the next world.

In April and May of this year, another part of field research by Czech Egyptologists regarding shaft tombs from the middle of the first millennium BC took place in Abusir, Egypt. It was here that the archaeological team of the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University discovered the tomb of a hitherto unknown dignitary from the time of the Persian invasion of Egypt.

“It is a richly decorated shaft tomb of medium size, whose owner, a certain Džehutiemhat, held the office of royal scribe,” explains Ladislav Bareš, who has been coordinating the research of Abusir shaft tombs for a long time.

From the tomb, the above-ground part of which was destroyed already in ancient times, only the main shaft was preserved, at the bottom of which lay a burial chamber made of limestone blocks at a depth of 14 meters. Access to it was provided by a small, more northerly shaft and a narrow corridor approximately three meters long connecting the access shaft with the burial chamber.

For reasons still unknown, this access shaft was largely filled with several dozen decorated limestone blocks, originating from the dismantled above-ground part of the nearby majestic tomb of General Menechibnekon.

A tomb with rich decoration

The burial chamber is richly decorated with texts and other scenes. A long sequence of incantations against snakebite from the Pyramid Texts covers the north entrance wall. Interestingly, the snakes mentioned in these magical texts represented a potential danger, but could also serve as powerful protectors of the deceased and his mummy.

“While the entrance to the nearby Menechibnekon’s burial chamber was protected by the guardians of the gates of the 144th chapter of the Book of the Dead, in the case of Džehutiemhat, snakes from the Pyramid Texts play this role,” adds Renata Landgráfová, director of the Institute of Egyptology and an expert on the ancient Egyptian language and texts.

The south and west walls are covered with a sacrificial ritual and an extensive sacrificial list. On the ceiling of the burial chamber are depictions of the journey of the sun god Reo through the sky, first in the morning and then in the evening celestial bar. The depictions are accompanied by hymns to the rising and setting sun. Inside the burial chamber covered with relief decoration is a large stone sarcophagus, which also bears hieroglyphic inscriptions and depictions of gods, both outside and inside. The lid is decorated with texts taken from the Book of the Dead, but also excerpts from the much older Pyramid Texts, which partially repeat sayings that also appear on the walls of the burial chamber.

Ritual texts for eternal life

On the bottom of the inner wall of the sarcophagus bath, the goddess of the west, Imentet, is depicted, and its inner sides bear the so-called canopic sayings, spoken by this goddess and the earth god Geb. “The goddess of the west inside the sarcophagus represents the protector, guide and symbolic mother of the deceased,” explains Jiří Janák, who analyzes and interprets religious and magical texts as part of field research.

All the mentioned spiritual-ritual texts were supposed to ensure the deceased a smooth entry into a blissful and well-secured eternal life in the afterlife.

The tomb of the scribe Dzhehutiemhat was discovered almost empty, as it was robbed probably already in the 5th century AD, similar to other tombs in this burial ground.

The deceased suffered from sedentary work

From the anthropological analysis of the skeletal remains, which was carried out by leading Egyptian experts, it was found that Dzhehutiemhat died at a relatively early age of around 25 years, he bore the signs of a kind of occupational disease (wear and tear of the spine during sedentary work) and suffered from severe osteoporosis, i.e. thinning of the bones.

The latter fact could place him in the family of other inhabitants of the Abusir shaft tomb burial, in whom the disease was also confirmed, such as the famous Iufaa, the owner of a nearby much larger tomb, whose unlooted burial chamber was discovered in 1996.

It is therefore possible that most of the owners of the tombs buried in this part of the Abusir necropolis belonged to one extended family, firmly anchored in the military elite of late Saiyan Egypt. However, Dzhehutiemhat’s mother probably came from completely different circles and a different part of Egypt at that time. Her two names can be translated as “Nubian” and “Fox”, while the latter is written in an unusual, most likely Berber form.

They also found a collection of pottery in the tomb. “The discovery of a large fragment of a Chian amphora with a perfectly smoothed edge is also very interesting, because the ancient looters probably used it as a shovel,” says Květa Smoláriková, who is an expert on Egyptian ceramics and Greek imports in the Czech team.

“The recently discovered tomb of the dignitary Džehutiemhat on the Abusír archaeological concession is the latest piece of knowledge in the mosaic of the history of ancient Egypt at the end of its glory in the late period, in the 6th century BC,” says Miroslav Bárta, director of Czech archaeological research in Abusír, about the discovery.

“The shaft tombs represent a special type of tombs of this time. They were created as a specific attempt by the ancient Egyptian elites for a renaissance and are based on the form of the tomb of King Djoser, the founder of the famous Old Kingdom, the time of the pyramid builders in the 3rd millennium BC,” he adds.

[lavena]

Since I am so incredibly desperate for tmnt fic recs, here I am supplying mine. All of these i HAVE READ AT LEAST 3 TIMES

pretty much all Mikey centric and jsyk every one I recommended I reread b4 posting this. Sorry If I repeat any, this took me over a week, college is kicking my butt and midterms are next week, kill me. If you have any you red please lmk either in comments or with rb I need the ficss guys please I am desperate.

On AO3

Train-wreck of thought by halogalopagost

A beautiful 2003 tmnt where Mikey is having trouble meditating and gets some tips from his dad and brothers, he struggles with his ADHD, he over comes it and turns out there is a lot more to this meditating than he thought. he intends to use it to his advantage.

The Legend of the Heiwa no Buki by abz_the_turtle

2012 Mikey is pure of heart and turns out that causes some problems for him, his brothers and a certain bother in blue from the future

exhaust trails through space by SpectrumWriting

2012 B team realizes they really need a break, after a fight between Leo and Donnie, B team pull a few favors and go to visit a few planets, look at some extraterrestrial inventions and get to see a festival of food. Each brother learns new things about each other and finally get to take a few deep breaths.

Surface Pressure by TheKeyBladeMaster1994

Mikey watched Encanto and something abut their family feels familiar. Honest to go so good, it is unfinished and only at 3 chapters but it is 32k words and by god if it isnt one of the best books I have read over 5 times already, featuring mikey being a helpful little brother and managing to stress his big brothers out in the proccess.

Pretend That I Never Left by redstingraven (sirimiri)

2003 Mikey gets taken into the Horizon Zero Dawn universe rather than the superpowered turtle universe in the SAINW episode. Positively glorious, he gets bashed and bruised and comes out the other end with an arrow sticking out of him.

All The Small Things by taizi @taizi

2012 Donnie gets deaged and Mikey gets to be a big brother. Positively adorable, Mikey is an enabler and the poor toaster will never be the same, plus just the right amount of angst to make me squeal.

Underdark by Nekotsuki

2003 Mikey and Leo and stuck in the sewers after a collapse, both are hurt and oh looky here it seems Leo has fainted and Mikey is panicking, it would be great if he could take a full breath to hyperventilate with.

We've been here all along by Taizi

Beautiful 2007 tmnt, Mike gets shot, worries about making Donnie abandon him, Casey says fuck that.

walk with open hands by taizi

Mikey can't get over his fathers death and knows his brothers cant get over it either, and he is going to do something about it, been if it almost costs him everything. Was originally 1 chapter, but a second chapter from Splinters POV makes everything gorgeous.

traveling so far to get there by taizi

different age turtles, 2012 universe, Mikey and Raph gets transported to a post-apocalypses time-line aptly called the after party, no one lives, but Mikey does manage to find himself a monkey companion and Raph really wishes his little brother and him would be back home. Little moment of Mikey and Donnie being twins that is positively adorable and I need more of it ASAP. Its 10k words but reads like 30 in the best way possible, like literally a must read!

Closer by Taizi

adorable human woodyangelo

Problem child by taizi

human AU, Mikey is going to give his big brothers a heart attack, he makes questionable friends, and it seems he has a lot of growing up to be doing

Things You Never Outgrow by taizi

Mikey might just have picked up some less than stellar habits from his family as a baby, and now its coming out to bite him in the butt as his brothers notice.

Know the world in yourself by taizi

Donatello is an aspiring Egyptologist, and close friends with part-time thief and sometimes-scoundrel Casey Jones, who pickpockets an ancient map of the fabled City of the Dead off a young man he stumbles across in the Casbah—a young adventurer, it turns out, and none other than the little brother Donatello hasn't seen in almost eight years

Small spaces by Taizi

After 2012 Mikey gets captured and held by the Kraang, it seems he might just have a new fear, his brothers are not happy about it.

While you're here enjoy the view by taizi

Cute little woodyangelo 2012. They have my heart

Sleepwalking by TheKeybladeMaster1994

Splinter wakes up in a cold sweat and notices that Mikey is missing, and it seems like a dark entity is after his littlest sons light, good thing its just a nightmare, right? A few nights later it seems that is not so. Only 4 chapters but has 30k words and is a positive joy to read, I hope it continues to update.

The Ultimate Weapon by TheKeybladeMaster1994

Mikey is pure of heart and just about everything knows it, including but not limited to an eldritch entity that he swears is just try to make his life hard no matter what it tells you.

Interrogation or Malpractice by Professor_Anxietree

2012 Mikey when he got captured by the triceritons, their mind reading machine doesn't do quite what was intended and it spells out pain and sufferings for the smallest of the Hamato clan. Its pretty much being over stimulated to the max, like your skin feels too tight and you can hear your nerons firing in your brain type stuff, beware if you have overstimulation.

Someone to Protect by Koalagriton

2012. Mikey's big bothers get captured by Hun and Mikey doesn't take it well, that's going to become Huns problem.

Flowers by intomyfireyoushallfall

Mikey meets Tang Shen

The shinobi's garden by taizi

buncha one shots that you have to read, you have to istg 66k words of nothing but amazing.

family sticks together, bruh by hellomyoldheart

Mikey (Bayverse) discovers online shopping and sends it to Aprils place, April gets a package addressed for Mikey O'neil

too bad, but its the life you lead by angelmichelangelo @angelmichelangelo

2k7my beloved. Mikey is having trouble at home, good thing this new cat he found, affectionately named Klunk, can help a little. You will cry, I cried, still have read it four times, but crying non the less, read the tags or it will hit you like a freight train

the dad diaries by angelmichelangelo

pepaw Ronin and the new babies, adorable and angst ( in the form of flashbacks) nuff said

a minute from home by taizi

bteam for the win, I cant get enough, baby don and mikey wonder off and survive 3 months, it changes them

I've been afraid of changing by taizi

2007 Mikey really hates his job, Donnie didn't get that, but now he does

Give up the ghost series by taizi

Mikey can see ghosts, and that means he can see his one and only dead brother too, donnie, it causes problems for eveyone around him. human AU

The Gauntlet by T33la

Mikey and Don have to take a leap of faith, good thing Mikey has complete trust in his big bros tech

Flipbook by T33la

the 2003 SAINW donnie boy planned just in case and mikey finds the first bit of the plan, talks happen

Chronicles of the Cretaceous by T33la

Mikey boy manages to befriend a T-rex because of course he does

Words to be Spoken by Mona_E_Lisa @mona-e-lisa

Soulmate Au with woodyangelo, its got angst, just not for the boys, nd holy shyt I need more

The Silver Sentry by Mona_E_Lisa

2003 Mikey gets a son, and he deffo has some problems with Splinter, and I love him more than words

2088 by Mona_E_Lisa

If you haven't read this you haven't lived and that's all I can say. What are you doing? go read it??? like asap, will change you. Its 6k and this post will still be here when you get back, get going now sho sho

A Tale of Spirits by unorthodoxx @unorthodoxx-page

ATLA x tmnt 2018, everyone thinks they are spirits, donnie boy isn't going to correct them, and mikey ends up malnourished, but it updates this sunday so GO Go Go asap, it great

turning over stone by angelmichelangelo

2012 mikey gets angry, and kami does it suck, but good thing his big brother has experience in dealing with it.

caught in the rip tide by angelmichelangelo

Mikey gets hurt, and it might just be leos fault. 2012 based on the season 4 episode broken food.

yolk by angelmichelangelo

Mikey can't take the fighting anymore, too bad it took wrecking a midnight breakfast for his brothers to notice.

december 18th: raise a glass by angelmichelangelo

Mikey turns 21, and they really should be winding down by now, but Donnie doesn't have the heart. technically tagged with 2012 and IDW, but could totally see it with 2007 if u ignore that raph is in japan

december 15th: a size too big by angelmichelangelo

2007 Mikey was supposed to be bac an hour ago, he is gonna be the death of Donnie I swear.

the Kappas constellation by angelmichaelangelo

bunch a one shots

Honestly just anything by angelmichelangelo or taizi, but you can see that with how often they show up in this list

FF.net

Its a cycle by GhostiesandGhoulies

Adorable 2007 Mikey being hurt while doing cowabunga car and his brothers looking after him

Clogged drain by Goblin cat KC

Horror, the poor boys were not ready for this one but I adore it. Nothing more I can say than they will have nightmares and all of them will have night lights.

Hero among them by oliviasbizzaremind

2007 gang gets a call after a rough night, its for cowabunga carl, so how exactly does this lady know Mikey's name? Mikey always was a bleeding heart.

If Wishes were Fishes by Taisi (this is also on A03 I believe I just found it on ff.net fist so i figured id share that here too)

Human AU, adorable must read, like I cant stress this enough, you haven't lived without this. And as a former foster kid, damn.

Mikey's truly awful, incredibly sucky, super hella bummer of a day by Orange4Days

Exactly what the title says and you will enjoy this boys suffering and eventual comfort.

[emojiglyphics]

Emojis aren’t Hieroglyphs. But they could be. Because I have insomnia.

🌊📰🐍 1     🦉🥞📰⬇️   🦉     🎵🐶📰👕🕛     🐶🐰🐰😩

🌊💡🕛      🦉🚶       🥞📰🐶🐰🐶🤔  

🌊🦘😩        🦉📰🐶       🌊🐰😩

That’s the opening to Poe’s The Raven. It doesn’t represent the story, it says the words. Those are two different things, and I can prove it.

Two presidents ago, when a large segment of the population was still acting like emojis had just been invented, people used to call it “modern day hieroglyphics.”

And I got very “akshually” about it because part of why we’re able to read hieroglyphs is because it is a written language, but emojis, of themselves, are not.

Sure, you can “tell” a story with emojis, but you can’t read them the same way you read a sentence. Everybody who looks at them is going to say a slightly different explanation, whereas with a written language, everybody will say the same exact sentence when reading it aloud (in theory, there are valid exceptions).

It’s not that I’m afraid to put emojis on a pedestal, but rather that I think it diminishes the Egyptian language.

But anyway, it did get me thinking about how it might be possible to actually write English using emojis, treating them like Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Modern languages are generally written with characters that represent sounds, or characters that represent whole words at once. Even in written languages that use both (like Korean and Japanese) generally use separate sets of characters that are either phonetic or logographic.

But Egyptian was a little more free-form. The exact same character can be used to stand for a sound, a broad concept, or a narrow concept, and even a whole word by itself. And the phonetic ones might represent one consonant, or they might represent two, or three! And sometimes, if you have a double or a triple, you can tack a single at the end to remind the reader of what the extra sounds are. So you can’t even save space that way. Go figure. But then again you’re usually not worried about space because there are no vowels! I know that we’ve all been told that the Vulture is an A and the reed is an E, but this is not really the case. These letters are consonants for sounds that English does not have. So we make it kind of a fairy story that lets 1st graders write their name in “hieroglyphs”. It also makes it more convenient for Egyptologists to pronounce them.

But how on earth does this work? With each letter potentially representing so many different things, how do you read it? Well a typical Egyptian word will be constructed like this:

1. A group of glyphs acting as consonants, usually the shape of the glyph is a clue to the sound it makes

2. If needed, some extra single-sound glyphs to act as a reminder if the word happens to have any doubles or triples

3. A glyph which gives a general idea of what the word is probably about

So for instance, if you saw something like: “grp (food)” you’d be like, “guh... guh-ruh-puh, grup-- grape!” Of course, educated Egyptians wouldn’t have to sound words out like that because once you have spellings memorized, reading is basically reading.

So now we come back to The Raven. Let’s say we wanted to respell some words using emojis in a hieroglyph-like system. We want it to be consistent enough that readers can pick up new words, but no system is perfect, especially not for a language with as many trap-doors as English.

Let’s break down the first word in the Raven, “Once”, looking for consonants, concepts, but not vowels.

The first consonant is W. And it’s definitely a consonant and not just the “oo” sound. Don’t believe me? Try making the “w” sound without raising the back of your tongue. Now make a real “w” sound and leave your tongue in place while trying to say “too”. Doesn’t sound right. So now we scan through the available emojis, and we see 🌊 , the wave. Wave starts with a W sound. That can be our W emojiglyph.

The next sound is N. We see  📰 , the newspaper. Perfect.

The final sound is the non-voiced S. So we need to find an S emoji. Some of you may be wondering why we’re not looking for a C, and the answer is because we don’t really care how the word is spelled in English. That’s just the 1st grade swap again. We care about the sounds in the word. And the sound at the end of “once” is S.

We find  🐍. The snake. Love it. The word snake starts with an S sound, and snakes hiss. Very easy to remember.

So now we have 🌊 📰 🐍. But it’s missing something. We just have W-N-S. That could also spell “wince” or “whence” (in most accents). We need to add a determinative, a conceptual glyph to let people know what the word is about and narrow it down. In this case it’s easy because the concept is the number 1.

🌊 📰 🐍 1 

Boom!

Next word: Upon

Little bit of a tricky point here: If we are super strict about the rules, we will have a word which is spelled P-N. That’s just too vague for my tastes. Let’s bend the rules and give ourselves a clue that the word begins with a vowel.

And what rhymes with vowel? 🦉Owl. BOOM. For the moment, the owl is only for indicating vowels at the beginning of the word. I don’t want to deviate from how hieroglyphs work too much. But even just an initial-vowel indicator hugely improves readability. .

Going through the process again, vowel-P-N (downward)

🦉🥞📰⬇️

🌊 📰 🐍 1 🦉🥞📰⬇️ 

Once upon

BOOOOM.

Something else that the rest of my spelling has in common with egyptian: exceptions. Not all the words above have a determinative at the end. Sometimes the spelling alone seems clear enough.

One final thing I want to make clear; for something like this to work in the real world, it would need to be made consistent. Right now, it feels kind of like a sandbox for creating puzzles, but a written language should not, by design, be puzzling. A language is a contract we enter into. You and I agree that Apple means Apple and sounds like Apple and is spelled Apple. Although there’s no shortage of exceptions, that’s what languages are usually trying to be. So although there’s no reason to necessarily pick the Yarn over the Yin Yang for Y, or the Newspaper over the Nib for N, it’s something that a formal system would want to lock down.

[whencyclopedia]

Kingdoms and Periods of Ancient Egypt

The kingdoms and periods of ancient Egypt are modern-day designations for the history of the civilization. The people themselves did not refer to these eras by their modern terms but, instead, dated their history by the reign of a king or a dynasty or event. The modern terms are simply used for ease in studying Egyptian history.

The first Egyptian chronology was created by the Egyptian priest and scribe Manetho in the 3rd century BCE. After hieroglyphics were deciphered in the 19th century, archaeologists then developed his dating system. Scholars proposed different systems for the chronology of ancient Egypt with many agreeing on so-called Middle Chronology. The dates below follow this chronology as proposed by Egyptologist Ian Shaw in 2000, with slight modifications by later scholars. There is no "right chronology" for the Near East (including Egypt) as each dating system provides sound reasons for acceptance.

Predynastic Period in Egypt: c. 6000 to c. 3150 BCE

Early Dynastic Period in Egypt: c. 3150 to c. 2613 BCE

Old Kingdom: c. 2613-2181 BCE

First Intermediate Period: 2181-2040 BCE

Middle Kingdom: 2040-1782 BCE

Second Intermediate Period: c. 1782 to c. 1570 BCE

New Kingdom: c. 1570 to c. 1069 BCE

Third Intermediate Period: c. 1069-525 BCE

Late Period of Ancient Egypt: 525-323 BCE

Ptolemaic Period: 323-30 BCE

A "kingdom" refers to a time of unity and strong central government; a "period" to a time of disunity and decentralized government, with the exception of the Ptolemaic Period. After the fall of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Egypt was annexed by Rome, entering the period known as Roman Egypt (30 BCE to 646 CE). This period is not always included in lists of Egyptian chronology as it was no longer an independent nation but a province of the Roman Empire until it was taken by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century.

Continue reading...

[kari-go]

Oh, she is sooooo cool 😍🤩

Could her name please be ;

🐈‍⬛ Bustet 🐈‍⬛

(busted+Bastet -egyptologist father/bro)

She has geeat energy 💣

Thanks!!

Her name is Alley Cat but Bustet actually sounds like a name you'd call someone. Alley Cat sounds more like a name the public would give her and never actually address her by it directly. So I think I like Bustet more, thanks!

[kudouasagi135]

About the pharaoh!shinichi au!

This AU is free for artists to draw without permission but if you're a writer who wants to use this AU, please ask me first as I'm thinking of writing this as a big fanfic.

Comedian side stories though are welcomed, just tell me first what you are planning to write. (⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

People who are seeing this for the first time, let's make a small recap!

Kaito is an Egyptologist, who accidentally found an old tomb that wasn't yet discovered when visiting the Valley of Kings.

The tomb is small and not made well for a pharaoh, but the writing on the walls stated perfectly that the person buried inside was pharaoh.

Kaito entered the tomb alone and ignored the warning words written In hieroglyphics over the walls.

The tomb is protected by the curse of the pharaoh.

Kaito eventually finds the stone sarcophagus of the pharaoh and uncovers the lid to come face-to-face with a mummy staring into his soul.

Kaito is killed by the Pharaoh's curse and is sent to the underworld where he is to be given judgment for his misdeeds in his lifetime.

He is found guilty by the ancient Egyptian gods and his heart is about to be Ammit but the pharaoh stops them from destroying it just in time.

The young pharaoh suggested Kaito get resurrected into his teenage body before he started his criminal activity as a thief to remove the punishment as Kaito had brought justice upon even more unforgiving criminals, so giving him a punishment sounds a little unfair. And the young pharaoh, king Senzo, is to keep watch over Kaito to make sure Kaito doesn't do criminal work ever again.

In other words, they want him to catch the organisation again but this time without using KID's name.

Kaito doesn't have any other options and agrees.

And hurray! Now he has a pharaoh's spirit lurking around him 24/7 while also redoing highschool from scratch and catching Snake over again as well!

Calling the pharaoh Senso though seemed lame and weird to him, especially that the pharaoh can let others see him if he willed it, so he decided to give him a Japanese name.

"You're name from now on until the end of this is Shinichi, any objections?"

Too bad Shinichi was distracted by the fluffy guest room bed to even respond to him.

And this is basically it, reblog all you want, I don't mind, any questions can be sent to my ask.

And also if you want to know, all the above is ancient Egyptian folklore from my home country (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠) And if you want to know more about this you can search on Wikipedia "Book Of The Dead", I confirmed the variety of the information, so don't worry ;⁠)

Now, Peace out! (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

[m1male2]

1850 photo of the Sphinx of Giza or Abu el-Hol (Father of Terror) as it is called by the locals, before it was excavated. Between 1816 and 1817 Giovanni Battista Caviglia (1770-1845), an Italian explorer and Egyptologist, undertook his excavation. Others would follow later.

[twojackals]

It starts at the top

Rev. Dr. Tamara Siuda is a good person who I admire. I consider her a mentor and I probably always will to some degree. She is a skilled Egyptologist, a talented divination professional, a beloved spiritual leader (even still to me now, that remains true), and I dare say under different circumstances she'd be easily considered a friend -- the problem is, no one these days has access to Tamara Siuda long enough to be her friend -- but what's worse is that in, my opinion, no one has enough access to Tamara Siuda to be her devotee, either.

And that is definitely one of the big reasons behind my dropping down from Shemsu-Ankh to Remetj.

Let's roll back for a second though.

Rev. Dr. Tamara Siuda is the creator of Kemetic Orthodoxy (not Kemeticism, but Kemetic Orthodoxy in specific. She is a truly beloved spiritual leader, and the self-proclaimed incarnation of the Kingly Ka (a spiritual component linking all Pharonic Kemet rulers, aka Pharaohs). She had a calling, and a vision, and she did everything she could to bring those ideas and visions to fruition. Enter Kemetic Orthodoxy.

I arrived in the House late 2000. The year 2000 was a different time: Some people like me will tell you the old days were the better days, and we really do mean it; however, it doesn't come without its caveats. We were smaller back then, and that isn't something I deny to be an easier situation. With a smaller community size, came differences. Much different, in fact. So different, it may have well been an entirely different religion in a lot of ways, not in belief structure, but in access to the people most important to be the guiding lights of the path itself, and interaction with Hemet (a word conveying a type of royalty), or Rev. Dr. Tamara Siuda, was not at all infrequent.

Having an actual human relationship with Rev. Dr. Siuda back then wasn't a difficult task, and it is what I remember most fondly about "the old days", as it were.

Today, you can literally go months without ever seeing Hemet in any accessible KO location. It's strange because I think I didn't notice it for a long time, and only began to realize the extent of this isolation / disconnection for myself when I first joined her Patreon server. While I had spent the 3+ years (4 come Wep Ronpet) since re-joining the temple wondering "where is Hemet in all of this these days" as her presence grew ever more scant, joining her Patreon would be a refreshing surprise, because basically: there she is. It's not terribly difficult to touch base with her when you're on her Patreon Discord or in one of her Patreon programs, and that shook my world a bit more than I thought it would. To the point where it became one of the reasons I pulled out of the same program after being in it for only a very short amount of time.

Where was Hemet? Well she was there, for anyone who was willing to pay for it at least, and that bothered me to my very core. To be extremely clear, I do not believe she means it to look this way. I do not believe it is her intention for things to be this way, but as per our capitalistic society, maybe that's just the way it needs to be.

That sent me spiraling back into my memories, some more recent than others. We had for years disavowed the idea of a "paywall" inside Kemetic Orthodoxy, for example. Even the old mailing list which was a "Donate $5 and get access to extra stuff!" was a source of disdain: People considered that "tiered access", though I think the donation aspect still exists but not held in perpetuity or the like (you donate once, no one notices if you never donate again). But today, the quality of what you get is no longer there anyway, even for $5. I suppose that is because holding anything back "just for donors" brings that "tiered access" problem back. Today, the list you are subscribed to is nothing but a regurgitation of some Daybook content, and it appears to be queued up robotically with absolutely no customization.

It's funny because if you read what the list is meant to provide, it is that Daybook content as well as (quote) "hymns, prayers, and other tidbits provided by Hemet (AUS)." We used to get that back in the day, to be clear. The tidbits, prayers, hymns… we used to even have access to KO blog-style posts from Hemet multiple times per week. Unfortunately, those days are long gone, and as I mentioned, the mailing list is nothing but the same Daybook content on a never-ending carousel, the beautiful inspirational blog posts are long gone, and Hemet is about as distant as both of them.

As a result, I hardly consider the "mailing list" to be a form of tiered content, but there was at one point in the House's history a time when people cried about the disparity between those with $5, and those without, despite always needing donations, and I suppose here we are.

When you think about the fact that we no longer have the access to Hemet we once did, we no longer have the relationship to Hemet we once did, we no longer get the tidbits, prayers, hymns, and other unique content we once did, and no one really cares if you continue donating "at least $5 in a calendar year or not" to be on it, you realize that list is really nothing anymore. It's just recurring mush pre-scheduled and unlovingly dumped into your box at midnight or like, akin to so much spam we avoid day in and day out, and you still technically have to pay $5 for it.

But all the while we the Kemetic Orthodox crowd is getting this regurgitated content and limited access, people are in fact able to get plenty of access to Hemet and personalized relationships and advice... just not within the actual religion she created. And the way they do that is, in fact, by paying for it: the one thing we kept saying we didn't want to do as a religion, but that we can -- and dare I say, should -- do. Because listen: I recognize capitalism, and that nothing operates on hopes and prayers. There should be tiered access available within Kemetic Orthodoxy that gives access to programs and resources so that donations do happen and that Hemet does not need to go to Patreon independently to do what she needs to do, and our community can again have an access to its spiritual leader that makes that much more worth being here to begin with.

Because I can get the Gods anywhere -- I can only get Kemetic Orthodoxy here though.

But at the same time, you can't keep asking for donations, and delivering almost nothing to the very religion you created. And I do not say that in a vacuum, because before you say "all she does behind the scenes", I already know quite a bit of what she does behind the scenes, and I'm here to tell you quite point-blank: it isn't enough (clarify: it isn't enough to only be behind the scenes and just tell people you really really promise you're doing tons of work, even if you never see or get to interact with me).

I'm sorry, Tamara.

It's weird, I know, I sound like I'm speaking against her, but yet seem to turn it around entirely saying things like she should be available via paywalls. It also seems like I'm screaming into a void of entitlement, but again that's not meant to be the case. If you look at what I'm saying, you will understand I am not speaking 'against' her at all. I am in favor of her doing every single thing she must to find joy, happiness, and yes money, because that's the world we live in... and if that's outside Kemetic Orthodoxy, so be it. But you can't necessarily be "King", either, at the same time.

I do not agree with the idea that the only place you can seem to get access to our own spiritual leader in any significant capacity, is outside of the very religion she created. And creating a religion is no small thing, particularly if you are going to be assigned the literal role of Royalty that comes down from a very long, long line. I mean, she won't even participate in our own Discord, and to be clear, she is definitely participating in her own. So this is not a technology-gap kind of thing, and while the excuse over time has always been that people will try to overwhelm her, there are ways of dealing with that -- none of which anyone is willing to explore.

That responsibility you create by the process of birthing an entire religious movement into this world… it cannot be quantified by contracts, donation levels, exterior commitments, or other spiritual lives you may lead. If you create a path followed by hundreds, you need to be there, because that is your creation from the ground up, your baby, and all the babies that came from it depend on you for as long as it remains standing. "How do you make money", "How do you keep it going", "How do you find the time" -- all good questions, and all not questions anyone in the religion you've created technically needs to worry about, because it wasn't their choice to make this path, it was only their choice to follow it.

By making a statement of such importance as being the incarnation of an ancient, profound, holy and somewhat unbroken energy, followed up without a commitment that reflects the very innate reverence and humility contained within the statement itself, is a paradox I am having great difficulty to reconcile, not the least of which is how you can claim to be this, but also be dual-aspected in terms of your own spirituality in your own personal life as well (something I will not comment further on, asit is a point of bitterness I cannot overcome right now but also a very complex point as well that is not fair for me to touch on).

Simply speaking, after great, deep consideration, I have simply had to come to the conclusion as follows:

Rev. Dr. Tamara Siuda, who I still admire, and deeply respect, is not the incarnation of the Kingly Ka of Pharonic Kemet. She remains an amazing spiritual leader, a strong and experienced divination practitioner (which is why I still accept my RPD results), and a beautiful soul. But in its current incarnation? I feel Rev. Dr. Tamara Siuda has functionally abandoned Kemetic Orthodoxy in one too many ways, and I do not believe any true modern-day King could be capable of such a serious lapse or gap.

In a not-insignificant way, I do feel she avoids her community more than she embraces it, and that makes me sad. Too sad to stay as I was any longer, because I was not getting what I needed from a spiritual community, and too much of it went back to Tamara in specific.

It's possible, one day, I will change my mind about this. I am not so arrogant to think I will never change my mind again, I am 41 years old and have changed my mind more times than I can count. But for now, I agreed I would talk about why I've decided to make these changes in my Kemetic spiritual life, and this needed to be said if I was going to be honest. This is how I feel, right now, for today, and probably tomorrow.

I've cut out quite a bit of material from this, things I wrote down in my first few days after I made the change to Remetj that were perhaps a lot more harsh than I intended. I re-read it to myself and, while a lot of it still made sense, I decided it was just not fair to post. Instead, I tried to balance the way I feel, and the things I want to say, with enough balance that I can still project how disappointed I am in the state of everything and turns of events (or lack thereof), without equally projecting a serious attack against another person (which is not my intent).

I am not here to attack. I am here to express, and that will walk a fine line not everyone is going to agree with.

As usual, I'm fairly OK with that. Edit: Wow... in writing this, I wasn't expecting it to feel like a 20-lbs weight has been lifted from my chest, and my heart, and my soul. But here we are.

Edit 2: Someone on Facebook decided to state that I believe Hemet is a "dirty capitalist" -- I want to be clear that if this is what you've gotten from this post, you are wildly mistaken. Either I am not calling her that at all, or I am simply calling us all dirty capitalists, due to the innate unavoidability of capitalism itself. Ultimately, the idea is to combine 'necessary capitalism' with KO in order to save it and to ensure its spiritual leader can survive on what is connected to the House, rather than what comes from outside the House.

But, I was also accused of stating that Hemet should spend 'all of her free time' in the House, and that is a bit more tricky to address. Here's the thing: if you're going to call yourself King / Pharaoh, perhaps this is the responsibility that comes along with it -- whether that is 'palatable' to people becomes irrelevant.

Edit 3: Because we need these edits, yo. To be crystal clear, I also believe there are alternatives to Tamara being "only involved" in KO, but that's going to involve her a) speaking more readily, honestly, and openly to her congregation on a regular basis (perhaps not every day, but regular, none the less), b) dropping down from a position of "King" to something more akin to High Priest or Spiritual Leader so that her role makes more sense, c) creating full delegation to a wide group of people to run the Temple and its resources/platforms (something where change is happening slower than a snail can jog), d) dropping all contracts that indicate she will work x-amount-of-hours for x-amount-of-pay, because the organization is no where near big enough or committed enough to support it, unless e) they finally agree to integrate some revenue stream into the Temple itself. I'm not saying I have all the answers. I'm saying the way it is now, doesn't work, and will only get worse. I am hoping for change that bridges the gaping divides, and I don't have a scripted plan to 100% tell anyone how that would go. I just know that it can't stay like this, and as long as it does, Kemetic Orthodoxy is not for me. Like I said: I can get the Gods anywhere.

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Hey, so I'm just watching Esotericas new video on The Pyramid Texts, and Dr Justin has just explained that he will be referring to pyramids and these texts mainly as "immortality technology" rather than tombs or death rites as he feels that using terms we associate with the preparation and storing of dead bodies obscures the purpose of these texts and buildings in Egyptian society. Dr Justin isn't an egyptologist so I was wondering if this is a term used by academic Egyptologists or one he has come to himself and, if the latter, what your opinion on this terminology would be.

Thanks in advance for your time and I hope you're having a smashing day!

That feels...very wrong.

I spoke with @rudjedet about this to get a second opinion, because my reaction to something might be different to someone else's, but we both agree that talking about the Pyramid Texts like that is divorcing them from their context and risking being a little anti-theist by not acknowledging their religious context and simply referring to them as 'technology' (also smells like a Darnell 'resurrection machine' theory and...well we all know how I feel about the Darnells). That's a yikes anthropologically speaking when dealing with what is essentially a very complex set of religious texts from an Ancient society.

Egyptologists refer to Pyramids as Pyramids. Very rarely do we refer to them as tombs, because we've never found the body of a king inside one, but that was one of their intended purposes (see the sarcophagi). We tend to use 'tomb owner' rather than 'deceased' when talking about those we find in these tombs because as Egyptologists we know that a tomb functioned as both a resting place for the body, and as a religious place where the family of the tomb owner would perform rites.

Now the Pyramid Texts are extremely complicated, both religiously and in translation. There's a lot of metaphor and imagery that has taken decades to understand within the proper context. But their original intended use was for inside the Pyramid of the king, that's the only place you would see them, and they contain religious rites that would transfigure the Akh of the King so that he would join with the sun god Ra in his solar barque. There are utterances within the PT that are said by a Lector Priest 'to the dead person', they literally refer to the the person these rites are for as being dead (they're referred to as 'weary' but that's metaphor for the dead). To say 'oh no we can't use these terms to refer to them because it makes us associate them with the dead' is missing the point, because the Egyptians refer to them as places for the dead and speak about the dead inside them when they're performing rites and rituals. There are apotropaic utterances within the Pyramid Texts to protect the dead body of the king from harm, and also to continually provide him food in the afterlife so that he doesn't succumb to mw.t or 'second death'.

I mean the Book of Coming Forth by Day (commonly known as the Book of the Dead because it is, you guessed it, found with the dead) is a religious text that guides the Akh of the deceased person, on their journey to the afterlife. The Book of Coming Forth by Day is an adapted form of the Pyramid texts (many of the texts for the King began to fall into general use in later periods) wherein there are spells that guide the dead king on his journey.

So in short: Egyptologists refer to them as Pyramids and the texts as 'religious texts' because Ancient Egyptian culture is centred very strongly around religious rites and the religious rites of the dead. They can't be called 'immortality technology' because that belies their very function within general Egyptian society (as places of religious worship/rites and as places for the dead).

[agp]

if you listen to marx and engels about the egyptians, pharaohs, and pyramids, theyll say it was human labor power on all fronts that make our lives and what we make with them possible. the pharaohs may have been demanding things in the name of gods but it was always already indigenous labor power at the highest level of management. even the pharaohs are human.

if you listen to the anishinaabe about the egyptians, pharaohs, and pyramids, theyll say it was nanabozhos labor power on all fronts that make our lives and what we make with them possible. the pharaohs may have been demanding things in the name of other gods but it was always already indigenous labor power at the highest level of management. even nanabozho is human

if you listen to the japanese about the egyptians, pharaohs, and pyramids, theyll say it was atems labor power on all fronts, followed by the labor of modern egyptologists and businessmen, followed by the labor of the people playing and watching this stuff (in canon) that make our lives and what we make with them possible. the children playing shadow games may have been demanding things in the name of gods or a pharaoh but it was always already a indigenous labor power at the highest level of management. even these kids are human

if you listen to the french about kaibacorp, pharaohs, and pyramids around ottawa, theyll say it was joan of arc and some special kid over at afnorths labor power on all fronts that make our lives and what we make with them possible. the pharaoh may have been demanding things in the name of gods but it was always indigenous labor power at the highest level of management. come on guys im a human too and the aliens arent coming for another 12 years.

im just a/the time traveller who had to figure it all out by herself because im so alone for real theres no way my mom and grandpa are alive right? surely this is ridiculous. dont call me ridiculous

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Are these Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s twins? "Egyptologist Giuseppina Capriotti of the Italian National Research Council believes a statue in the Cairo Museum depicts the twin children of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene... Capriotti noticed that the boy has a sun-disc on his head,‭ ‬while the girl boasts a crescent and a lunar disc. The serpents, perhaps two cobras, would also be different forms of sun and moon, she said. Both discs are decorated with the udjat-eye, also called the eye of Horus, a common symbol in Egyptian art." (The History Blog, 2012)

[ktempestbradford]

Eclipse October 2023 Through Obsidian

One of the things I learned on my travels is how the ancient Mayans were able to observe the transit of the planet we call Mercury across the sun. Obviously not something easy to see. Mayans used obsidian as a sun viewer, like you see here. (they probably made theirs much bigger 😂 mine is a pendant.)

When I first learned this it blew my mind! I wondered if other ancient cultures also knew this. I asked an Egyptologist friend and he said that the Egyptians worked with obsidian all the time - they used knives made of it as scalpels. He didn't know if it was specifically used for astronomy, but it's highly likely.

I'd love to hear from other folks who've studied ancient civilizations if they it this way.

The one thing a Mexican astronomer warned me about is not to use obsidian to look at the sun extensively because it doesn't block UV, so staring could still damage my eyes. Thus, I also had regular eclipse glasses.

[theantonian]

Sculpture of Antony and Cleopatra's twin babies

A Sculpture that has been idling in a museum for ages. Egyptologist Giuseppina Capriotti of the Italian National Research Council believes a statue in the Cairo Museum depicts the twin children of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. The sandstone statue was discovered near the temple of Hathor in Dendera on the west bank of the Nile in 1918. Cleopatra VII is known to have commissioned works in that temple, most famously a monumental pharaonic relief of herself and her son by Julius Caesar, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, aka Caesarion.

The Cairo Museum bought the five-foot-tall statue but didn’t pay it a great deal of attention, thinking it a representation of the twin gods Shu and Tefnet, son and daughter of the sun god Atum-Ra.

The statue is of two nude children, one male, one female, who bear the attributes of sun and moon respectively. They have an arm over each other’s shoulders while they hold a serpent in their other hands. The coils of two snakes wind around their legs and the base of the statue.

Capriotti noticed that the boy has a sun-disc on his head,‭ ‬while the girl boasts a crescent and a lunar disc. The serpents, perhaps two cobras, would also be different forms of sun and moon, she said. Both discs are decorated with the udjat-eye, also called the eye of Horus, a common symbol in Egyptian art. “Unfortunately, the faces are not well preserved, but we can see that the boy has curly hair and a braid on the right side of the head, typical of Egyptian children. The girl’s hair is arranged in a way‬ similar to the so-called ‭m‬elonenfrisur‭ (‬melon coiffure) an elaborated hairstyle often associated with the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Cleopatra particularly,” said Capriotti.

The statue dates to between 50 and 30 B.C. Mark Antony and Cleopatra’s twins were born in 40 B.C. so the timing fits, but it’s the unusual iconographic choices which suggest this is not just a statue of Shu and Tefnet. In the Egyptian pantheon, Tefnet, the sister, wears the solar disk, but in this piece the female twin wears the crescent moon and the male wears the sun, in keeping with the Greek tradition of the female moon goddess Selene and the male incarnation of the sun, Helios.

The twins’ embrace could suggest a solar eclipse, which is significant because when Mark Antony officially recognized the twins as his children three years after their birth, the event was marked by a solar eclipse. That’s when Cleopatra changed their names from plain Cleopatra and Alexander to Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios.

If these are Antony and Cleopatra’s twins, it’s the first representation of the two together ever discovered. The only other image we have is of an adult Cleopatra Selene on coins minted during her reign as Queen of Mauretania. Alexander Helios does not appear to have survived into adulthood, nor his younger brother Ptolemy Philadelphus.

After their parents’ suicides, all three of Antony’s children by Cleopatra were taken to Rome by Octavian in 30 B.C. to march in his triumph as royal captives in gold chains. He handed the three of them over to his sister Octavia, Antony’s third wife, to raise. The boys disappear from the historical record, perhaps dead at Augustus’ hand. Cleopatra Selene, on the other hand, was married around 20 B.C. to King Juba of Mauretania, a north African client state.