From my Fantasy Writing Desk:
I’ve been intensely editing this week, reworking an early draft of the sequel to Priestess of Ishana. I’ve been adding a colorful thread to the tapestry that is my draft. After this week’s work, there’s a bright red thread that appears and submerges out of sight and then reappears in multiple chapters. It involves the psychology of one of my main characters entwined in with some magic. I think what’s going on with this character is now a lot clearer, more interesting, and more real. Success!
A lot of writers say they have to keep working a first draft all the way through without going back and fixing anything. I tend to write forward for a while and then realize I’m off track, go back and realign behind me and only then progress forward again. And each time I realize there’s another layer of character development or whatever that I want to add, I tend to start back at the beginning and add it up to the spot where I’ve gotten in the draft. Keeping the whole thing straight and progressing makes my brain hurt. I think I reamed out a few clogged brain connections this week. How to keep senility at bay, become a writer.
Archaeology I enjoyed:
Pomegranates Ancient to Modern
I’m a fan of delicious pomegranates and of foodie history, so here’s a good one. An article on the pomegranate and its cultural significance from its earliest appearance in the Near East at Elam in the 4th millennium BCE on through to Salvador Dali.
There are familiar references such as Persephone’s disastrous munching of pomegranate seeds. Not mentioned here, but known to me are the use of their shape in jewelry as bridal adornment.
I did not realize that the pomegranate as a sign of the Greek goddess, Hera, transferred to depictions of the Virgin Mary. The list of goddesses for whom the pomegranate is sacred, or at least associated, is remarkably long, Ishtar, Astarte, Hera, Demeter and Mary. I guess a big part of the answer as to why that is has to do with transfer from one to the next over time, but what is it about pomegranates that so invites feminine divine adherence? Ideas? Meanwhile toss some pomegranate seeds into your next salad or guacamole. Click here for ASOR blog “The Golden Pome: The Pomegranate from its Deepest Roots to Modern Culture”
Bronze Age Trade from Scandinavia to Egypt
It was a small world, after all. Trade in the Bronze Age stretched from Scandinavia to Egypt to Mesopotamia. We think of northern Europe as historically separate from the Near East (our false East vs. West dichotomy), but the evidence of early connections keeps coming in.
This article talks about the analysis of beads found in a woman’s grave in Denmark that shows they were manufactured in the same workshop as Tut’s jewelry and thus dating to around 1,323 BCE (Tut’s funeral date).
As this article notes, many other signs of trade exchange have been found, European amber in Egypt, Cypriot copper in Sweden, mixtures of all of these on the Uluburun shipwreck off of Turkey, to name a few.
The situation in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age disrupted this internationally connected world, not to be reconnected for quite a while. For the source of those complicated intertwining disruptions, read Eric Cline’s, 1177 BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed. This post’s oversimplified “blame it on the Sea People—whoever they were” won’t cut it, but the how and why of this massive breakdown is fascinating and utterly relevant to our current interconnected world. The specificity of the manufacturing location of these beads is especially appealing—thanks to the wonders of plasma-spectrometry. Click here for Haaretz “Beads Found in 3,400-year-old Nordic Graves Were Made by King Tut’s Glassmaker”
Drone’s Eye View of Pompeii
This clip gives a drone’s eye view of a Pompeii neighborhood. It creates a good sense of the close-packed urban feel of the ancient city. Click here for My Modern Met “Stunning Drone Video Captures Sweeping Views of the Ancient Ruins of Pompeii”