It’s the 100th anniversary of the day Howard Carter found the entrance to King Tut’s tomb. There are a number of ways to mark the occasion. The American Research Center in Egypt is offering a series of online events. If you enjoy brain teasers, try this 5 part puzzle from Mental Floss. If you’re lucky enough to live in NYC, Washington DC, LA, or Vancouver you can visit the Beyond King Tut Exhibit.
Ancient Egyptians drank beer and wine so they are both appropriate beverages for toasting the boy king. To Tutankhamen!
It doesn’t feel that long ago…but oh my, 1978, I watched it live.
I know! *groan*
I went to the King Tut exhibit many years ago, it was pretty cool but also creepy. I have some big issues with removing things from graves. I still have some fresh hop beers I will be consuming for happy hour and beyond. It’s a “ball night!” Some good basketball games & UW football game.
There are a lot of ethical questions surrounding this and other tomb discoveries. I went once too, many years ago but I probably wouldn’t now. It was basically an excuse to post the Steve Martin bit.
I’m wondering if the Egyptians had any way to carbonate their beer in airtight containers. If not, I think I’d rather have their wine.
I don’t believe from what I read that it had much in the way of carbonation. Given a choice I’ll always pick wine over beer.
I have a book that has a bunch of info about Egyptians and beer but don’t remember much mention of carbonation.
welp…if they had beer then i assume they also had this song
which turned up in my recs just now and is making me think i finally broke youtube and brought it down to my level
Made me laugh 🙂
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo used to charge an additional fee to see the Tut exhibits and an extra fee to see the room with a bunch of mummies (human and animals). The mummy room had them all safely under plexiglass so no grimy tourist hands or breathing could hurt them.
Anyways, really really fucking cool and definitely worth the extra money. You can spend like 2 hours on just the Tut exhibits, strap in for a long day at an amazing museum.
Just going to Egypt sounds amazing. And I’d be inclined to see the exhibit there.
I did a 2 week study aboard in college which was led by my favorite professor. Trip of a lifetime and so fucking cool. The feeling of deep history is so neat there. Like a structure over 100 years old is “wow old” for most of the US, and thanks to intentional destruction of most prehistoric structures there isn’t a visual reminder of “oh shit this place is super old,” whereas in Egypt it’s like “hi my neurons are trying to comprehend that this was tunnel I’m climbing through was built 4500 years ago ope the neurons can’t do it.”
Also! Cairo has some of the most gorgeous Islamic art and architecture because it was conquered so early on by the Umayyad Dynasty in the late 7th century. Then in the Middle Ages the Ottomans conquered it so you get that influx of architectural design in mosques and housing.
What a great experience.