*Animals & Archaeology* .......Fuck yeah!

dead-men-talking:

britishbullet:

olivearchaeology:

Just in case you don’t already know, going to Egypt is a life goal of mine, let alone being able to DIG in Egypt. It looks like this may be a very real possibility this fall! It’s only a month long program and it’s smack dab in the middle of the fall semester, forcing me to basically take the…

Hey! I found your post through the archaeology tag. I lived for four months in Cairo; while I’ve never been to Armana, it sounds like you’ve got an AMAZING experience up ahead of you. Take it! I can tell you about living in the country/the unrest or just answer any questions about living in Egypt that you might have if you’re interested. :) Good luck!

My turn. :)

I spent a month in Amarna (near modern El Minya) for a bioarchaeology field school with the Amarna Project summer before last.  It was an amazing experience and is probably most of what got me to my master’s program in England, but there are some caveats:

1.) It’s hot.  Like 120 F (almost 50 C).

2.) Cairo is fun, but when people find out you’re American they assume that you are rich and stupid, so they’ll take advantage of you.  At Giza one guy got hauled onto a camel and charged an exorbitant amount.  A kid stole money from me there too (but I was being dumb).  Same guy got locked into a shop and wasn’t allowed to leave until he paid for a very expensive item.  Haggling at Kal el-Khalili was really fun though.  

3.) Outside of Cairo, there’s very little English, air conditioning, or human contact.  We did the tourist thing in Cairo for a few days, but once we were five hours south in Amarna, we couldn’t leave.  For about four weeks.  We had armed guards around our compound.  No going for walks.  No shopping; the nearest place to do so was an hour away.  No internet, TV, flushing toilets.  Everyone got sick (except for me, not sure how).

4.) Ladies, be careful making eye contact with men.  Often, you might as well just flash them.  There’s always a chance for a marriage proposal too.

That said, I’m glad I did it.  The remains and sites were incredible.  The only things that really got to me were the heat and the isolation.  I hope I can go back someday, perhaps to Luxor.  I’ve also thought of doing the winter excavation season if I can afford it down the road.

Too bad I didn’t find you sooner, though!  The Jane C. Waldbaum Scholarship helped me get to Amarna, but the deadline is today.  Still, you might be able to find other scholarships.

Good luck!!

1) I love that you do Bioarchaeology! I’m studying Classical Archaeology as an undergrad but I would like to do bioarchaeology in Grad school! I just don’t have any experience and doing this dig will keep me from getting an Anthropology minor. I guess I’ll figure all that out later though. I’ve heard wearing a fake wedding ring is a good way to avoid the marriage proposals…and then I just realized we can’t wear any metal on the dig (at least working with the equipment) It sounds amazing though! Luckily it says there will be about 20-30 people on the dig so it won’t be that lonely. 

I used to live in the central valley, CA where it usually gets devil piss hot (not quite as hot as Egypt but…) now, I live in San Francisco so getting used to weather twice as hot as it is here will be awesome! At least I’ll get some color? Did you go on your dig through this same program (Institute for Field Research)?

britishbullet:

olivearchaeology:

Just in case you don’t already know, going to Egypt is a life goal of mine, let alone being able to DIG in Egypt. It looks like this may be a very real possibility this fall! It’s only a month long program and it’s smack dab in the middle of the fall semester, forcing me to basically take the…

Hey! I found your post through the archaeology tag. I lived for four months in Cairo; while I’ve never been to Armana, it sounds like you’ve got an AMAZING experience up ahead of you. Take it! I can tell you about living in the country/the unrest or just answer any questions about living in Egypt that you might have if you’re interested. :) Good luck!

Thanks for check my post out! I’m really jealous that you’ve been able to live in Egypt for a little bit of time! Some of my main questions would be: How is the weather around October-November? And when it’s insanely hot, how do you NOT have a heat stroke when you have to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts? (or so I heard, to be respectful of the culture there) How come you were staying in Egypt and dig you do any digging yourself?