Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Mummies!

When I was a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist.  There are days when I wish I had stuck with that idea.  I'm not sure why I changed my mind.  Maybe I realized I didn't really want to spend my days in a really hot climate.  Or maybe I realized that archaeology would require quite a bit of science and I was never very good at science. 

But even though I gave up on the idea, I still love stories of finds.  Like this story:

Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of pharaonic-era mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins near Egypt's little-known Lahun pyramid, the site head said on Sunday.

There are a lot of mummies in Egypt and they get found fairly regularly but a big find like this still excites me.   Especially the brightly painted wooden coffins.

The last paragraph of that story was a good tease too:

Archaeologists hope to start digging soon in search of the tomb of Cleopatra and possibly her lover Mark Antony on Egypt's north coast. Cleopatra, facing possible captivity in Rome, is alleged to have killed herself by the sting of an asp in 30 BC.

Cleopatra interest me less than the earlier pharaohs, but you gotta admit it would make a good story.

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