Reviewing “A Maiden’s Prayer,” Exploring a Warrior’s Grave & Unexpected Foods

From My Fantasy Writing Desk

Review of A Maiden’s Prayer by Srianthi Perera

I just finished a charming historical novel set in 1970s Sri Lanka, entitled A Maiden’s Prayer. The novel is told through the eyes of a lively, insightful twelve-year-old named Tamara. We hear about and sympathize with her personal difficulties and hopes, but the story she primarily tells us is that of her uncle, her mother’s wealthy, handsome brother, known to Tamara as Berty Uncle.

Tamara’s voice is endearing, drawing the reader into her country’s life at a time of great political and social upheaval, after colonial Ceylon had thrown off its subservience to Britain and launched, however shakily economically, as independent Sri Lanka. Berty Uncle is a civil engineer with a lucrative job in Saudi Arabia, the only one in the family with abundant funds.

His sisters are deeply involved in repairing his one major flaw—his bachelorhood. Clearly, to them, he needs to get married and have children, but Berty Uncle enjoys a variety of flirtations and isn’t nearly as interested as his siblings wish. Perera has written with humor and warmth of the ensuing battles and strategies. These machinations include extensive consultations with Vedic Hindu astrologists to make sure the horoscopes of each proposed bride properly align with Berty’s.

Tamara’s story draws on the author’s Sri Lankan childhood. The book’s deeply authentic voice gives the reader a total immersion experience. I recommend this enjoyable, bittersweet tale of family, love, social customs, and overcoming loss.

Buy A Maiden’s Prayer on Amazon

Visit Srianthi’s website.

Archaeology I Enjoyed

Mycenaean and Minoan Connections

Archaeology’s overview of the most remarkable finds of this decade included the Tomb of the Griffin Warrior. Ah yes, what a find to remember!

Largely intact and untouched, this shaft grave of a Mycenaean warrior arrayed with all his extraordinary possessions (1500 or so of them) came to light in 2015 in an olive grove. The intensive study and excavation continue to this day.

We do not know the identity of this man, but we know, after nearby pottery dating, that he lived around 1500-1450 BCE. That places him in the period before the great Homeric palaces were built, such as the one at Pylos near this grave. He lived in a time of great transition when the mainlanders of Greece were trading with the Minoans of Crete and absorbing their high culture but not yet adopting its palaces or for that matter, conquering the ones on Crete. This is a moment that had been largely hidden to us until this abundant tomb showed us the truth.

The truth is a nuanced absorption and appreciation of Minoan culture that surprised a lot of people. At this time and before, Crete and its famous center at Knossos had a flourishing culture, trading with Egypt and the Levant, a culture we call Minoan. The “Mycenaean” mainlanders, living in villages and not yet very trade-focused, did not initially show interaction or influence with the Minoans. Then we jump forward in time to the palaces and other large-scale archaeological finds from the period after 1450, and poof, there are Minoan styled palaces etc.

What’s intriguing about the finds in this tomb is the sense of understanding and the “clued-in” quality of the Minoan objects. This isn’t mindless hording of fancy but meaningless treasures. It’s a careful curating of objects of great significance to the buried man. The stories depicted on the pieces feel, from the context of the find, like stories this warrior—or priest—shared in and knew.

The list of amazing objects is long: golden hilted sword & dagger, scores of beads of amber, carnelian & amethyst, golden rings, carved seals, & ivory plaques depicting Minoan scenes of religious/mythic/heroic content. One of those ivory plaques (not white as you might be imagining, but amber colored) shows a crouching griffin with its head turned back, an iconic pose. This plaque lay between the warrior’s legs and gives the grave its evocative name.

The object most admired from this tomb is the “Pylos Combat Agate” depicting in miniature the last moments of a battle between three warriors.

I’m giving you the link to the dig’s beautiful website and their photo gallery for further exploration. (The eponymous griffin plaque is only pictured as the logo in the menu bar, sadly, and not in the photo gallery, but here’s a separate link to see that image.) The commentary is all very accessible and the photos engaging. This is a find worth revisiting as the calendar changes to a new decade—all the more so because the lessons and gorgeousness are an archaeological dig in progress. But wait! There’ll be more! Click here for GriffinWarrior.org.

Going Bananas, Exotic Food Trade in the Ancient Near East

While we’re in the midst of eating well over the holidays (I hope!), here are surprising insights into Bronze Age feasting. The researchers examined (via microscopy and protein analysis) teeth from 1688 to 1000 BCE and realized that people in the Levant ate bananas, turmeric, sesame and soy—all from South Asia.

Far-flung trade in fancy foods not only provided these exotic ingredients for wealthy people, but for those definitely not of elevated status. Fortunately for the researchers, bad dental hygiene is universal in this period and the resulting plaque tells an amazingly detailed story.

We think of sesame as integral to Middle Eastern food, and now we know it does go way, way back, but it wasn’t native to the region. Study of teeth reveals oils, spices and prepared foods that are invisible in the archaeological record otherwise. The Asian bananas certainly caught my surprise as an Eastern Mediterranean food in the Bronze Age, although if I included bananas in one of my novels, I’d get eaten alive by reviewers telling me I’m ignorant and anachronistic. Sometimes I have to leave out the really weird stuff in self-defense. Click here for Inverse.com “FOOD STUDY PEELS BACK HUMAN HISTORY 1,000 YEARS EARLIER THAN THOUGHT”