Egypt in Edinburgh

What would a national museum be without an Ancient Egyptian section? There would be none of those night time shenanigans where the mummies come to life and chase pesky kids and their great dane around the building. The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street in Edinburgh certainly hasn't been left out on this front, but apart from being a useful comedy and horror tool the artifacts of Egypt offer an interesting insight into the life (or perhaps more often death) of the area two thousand and more years ago.

A row of coffins from various periods.

This coffin belongs to Irthorru from the 6th century BC. The label in the museum is slightly at odds with the information in the museum website - the label says the coffin belongs to Irthor, which sounds nearly the same, and that it is 300BC. It's difficult to make out in this picture (it's in the lower of the three wide horizontal bands just above where I imagine his knees to have been), but you can see the jackal headed god Anubis and hawk headed Horus. Anubis is particularly associated with mummification and the afterlife and here they are attending the body of Irthorru on a table to bring it back to life. Underneath the table are four canopic jars.

Canopic jars were used by the Egyptians when they were mummifying bodies to put the internal organs in. The lids were carved to represent one of the four sons of Horus, each of which was responsible for protecting one of the internal organs. The next two pictures show a complete set - Qebehsenuf, the falcon headed god responsible for the intestines, Duamutef, the dog headed god responsible for the stomach, Hapy, the monkey headed god responsible for the lungs (the one belong to the set is in the second picture and to my mind looks more like a seal but there is an odd Hapy in the front of the first picture too) and Imsety the human headed god responsible for the liver.

Canopic jars were carved with these gods after 1539 BC (good grief - could historians not be a little more accurate). After about 1075 BC the Egyptians stopped using canopic jars and returned the organs to the body, they would instead be accompanied by was wax figures of the four sons of Horus for protection. The set below are from around that date in 1075 BC.

This little figure is a Shabti, he was intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife and do any work for him. The spell on a Shabti might read something to the effect of, "Oh this shabti, if the late (deceased persons name) is selected for an work which is done in the underworld or for labour there as a man at his tasks, you shall say, 'Here I am'. You may be selected at any time for working there - to cultivate the field, irrigate the riverbanks, or transport sand East or West. 'Here I am' you shall say."

There are a large number of shabtis from various periods of ancient Egypt on display.

This one, which is much plainer than the ones above has his own little coffin.

This shabti coffin is much more elaborate (doesn't look like the right shabti for the box)

The Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386 BCish to 1349 BCish - there seems to be some debate as to the exact years)  liked to issue commemorative scarabs for significant events during his reign. There are five known scarabs and this is the most common type (123 are known). It commemorates that in his first 10 years as King, Amenhotep killed 102 fierce lions (is there another kind!). It's worth visiting the Wikipedia page which has a translation of some of the hieroglyphics on this scarab as well as information on the other sorts.

The museum has a large number of  small models of Egyptian gods. These may have played a part in domestic life as well as being used in graves. Many are the more common Egyptian gods that most will be familiar with but many were quite new to me. Below, the crocodile was Sobek who created the body of the king. Above him Atum is represented by the mongoose, sometimes known as Atem or Tem, he created the universe.

The lion headed goddess is Sekhmet, was concerned with war (as well as healing (which is quite handy really))

Sekhmet (you can see here again in the back of this picture) was married to Ptah, in the foreground, represented as a dwarf and god of craftsmen.

This container doesn't look at all Egyptian to me (it is though) and features Bes, represented as a dwarf with lion features, who was the protector of pregnant women and the family. Quite handy too, I read, with scorpion and snake bites. This box bears the name of Amenhotep II which dates it to about 1420 BC.

This little statuette doesn't appear to be anything mystical at all, it's just a rather charming model of a young girl from about 1800 to 1350 BC.

This is a wooden child's doll from about 500BC. As with many of her later counterparts, she has lost and arm and a foot and the other arm has come off too.

These toy animals are even older - they date from about 1900 to 1300 BC.

These marbles are about 5000 years old - they date to 2950 to 2650 BC and are engraved with the names of the first six kings. It is thought that they might have been used for a game known as the serpent game or Mehen.

The above marbles are noticeably Egyptian at 5000 years old, but it is possible to find artifacts predating the civilisation we recognise in Egypt. The figures below are plaster copies of ivory and terracotta originals in the British Museum. The originals, thought to be fertility figures, were found in burials in upper Egypt and date to about 4000 BC.

Pottery dating back to 4000 to 3200 BC

By the time you get back to about 4000BC, when this flint was worked, Egypt is very much in the stone age with the rest of the world.

These axe heads from before 5000 BC are as far back as the Egyptian exhibition goes.

A Swiss Army blog

Perhaps the title of this blog is a bit misleading. I've got nothing to say about the Swiss army at all, but I thought with all the different sections of the blog, it was a bit like a Swiss army knife with lots of different blades. Anyway, it does give me an excuse to take all the blades out on my Swiss army knife at once, which I managed to do without hurting myself (an unlikely outcome). 

According to Victorinox's website my particular knife is a model called the Huntsman . It might seem a little inappropriate to encourage wine drinking while hunting, but I've not usually been armed to the teeth when I've found uses for the corkscrew before.

Alas, once upon a time, this useful object lived in my pocket from which it made many appearances for snipping, cutting and sawing. I've even opened the odd tin can with it and it has gained me access to several gallons of inebriant  in it's time although, it must be pointed out, that I've never had cause to remove a stone from a horses hoof. Now there is a great fear that I might use it to run amok on the High Street with my trusted piece of Swiss engineering, or that I might be a member of the military wing of the Beard Liberation Front and use it to take hostages at the local branch of Quick Cutz. My knife has now been relegated from my pocket to a tidy corner (only the corner is tidy) of my desk where it is rarely called upon to complete tasks which challenge it very much.

Mystery Book Sculptures.

In 2011, eleven  book sculptures were left in various public locations in Edinburgh. Nobody knows who made them but they are delightful objects and they have all been kept. They were displayed together last year I believe. Some, perhaps all, are now on display at various places around the city. I saw this one on display last week in the National Library of Scotland. The coffin here is made from a copy of Charles Gibbons', The Casquet of Literature and the gramophone is made for Ian Rankin's, Exit Music. It was found in the same building it is in now and came with a label which said "For @Natlibscot - A gift - in support of Libraries, Books, Words, Ideas ..... (& against their exit)"

More of the 2011 sculptures can be seen in this Flickr album.

 That wasn't the last that was heard of the paper sculpture gifts. In August last year 50 paper flower sculpture were left around the site of the Edinburgh International Book Festival and in November last year another five book sculptures appeared at various locations around Scotland to celebrate book week Scotland. Also on display in the National Library is this sculpture, which is one of the five. For each sculpture, on line clues were posted as to the location they were in. The finder received a trophy of a paper teacup decorated appropriately (in this case with a palm tree). This one was found at the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick and is themed on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.The label for this one reads, " 'His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were' Robert Louis Stevenson ...Because reading matters...."

Three further sculptures have appeared, the last this year in June. Hopefully they will continue and that I'll continue to come across them occasionally.

Selfies

The word Selfie has been named as the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year. Apparently, it's usage has increased by 17000% over the year, which is quite a lot. In case you didn't know, a selfie is a photograph taken by yourself of yourself and I have to admit to being occasionally guilty. I took this particular selfie a few weeks ago in the pictures (thus the darkness) waiting to watch a 3D film (thus the specs) (Gravity by the way - worth going to see in 3D but not sure how good it would be in 2D, let alone on the telly)

 

The Oxford dictionary people first found the word used in an Australian Internet forum in 2002 but the selfie itself is almost as old as photography. This is the oldest known selfie, taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839.

The taking a photograph of yourself in the mirror isn't exactly a new trick either as demonstrated by this young lady sometime round about 1900. Unfortunately, Facebook is still a hundred years in the future so she has nowhere to post it to  #OMG

Not content with a selfie - here's a selfie of me taking a selfie.

Behind me, keeping an eye on my comings and goings, are two giants of Scottish literature and poetry. I took a photo of both original paintings last week when I was in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  The Robert Burns painting is by Alexander Nasmyth

The Walter Scott is by Henry Raeburn.

Sir Henry died in 1823, sixteen years before the first selfie. But when you're Scotland's top notch portrait painter, who needs a camera, you can just paint yourself a selfie. So here's Henry Raeburn's selfie. Of course if you don't have to use an arm to press the shutter, then that leaves both arms free to strike a hip pose. Yo Sir Henry.

The Giant Jar of Nutella

5 kilograms of delight. Forget something to spread it on, just bring me a spoon.

Sushi

After my trip to the pictures to see Gravity, I took myself to the Yo Sushi in Aberdeen where, after several visits now, I still find myself amused by my dinner arriving by conveyor belt. Accompanied by some passable Japanese beer.

Taking a selfie while picking up food with chopsticks.

 

Here's a useful button - don't you wish there were more of these about.

A little known but brilliant idea.

Most people are aware that, in order to help blind and partially sighted people across the road, the green man at a pedestrian crossing is often accompanied by a bleeping noise. But what happens if a person can't see or hear?

I've discovered that underneath the box with the crossing button, is this grooved knob. When the green crossing light goes on, the knob rotates. By placing a finger against it and waiting to feel it turn, you can tell when it's safe to cross the road.

Beer.

Occasionally I find myself obliged to drink beer.  On such occasions, if possible, I like to try something that is new to me. The Masonic Arms in Kirkcudbright probably has the best selection of beer in town. Harviestoun's Ola Dudh 18 is a mighty old beer matured in 18 year old Highland Park whisky barrels. It tastes fruity and biscuity and almost every other taste you could think of. See how it absorbes all light and once emptied, the empty bottle automatically goes into orbit round about the beer. You could paint this on a fence and it would last for years but I recommend you drink it instead because it is excellent. You might want to sit down first - it's 8%. (sneeked another selfie in there)

Also good and very similar is Ola Dubh 12. I'm guessing that the Ola Dubh 16, that I didn't try, is also quite similar.

Here's a small conglomerate picture of several recent beers. As you would read them, St Edmunds by Green King,  Bramling Cross by Broughton, Galloway Gold by Sulwath (our local Galloway brewery), Shipyard IPA all the way from the US of A, Abro lager from Sweden, and half a pint of cashew nuts (not strictly speaking beer but it came in a glass in a pub - a new way to sell nuts for me. It's a lot of nuts by the way)

Einstok Pale Ale, forged in Iceland, gets my vote as the best beer I've tasted for ages.

This was an excellent beer too, although I can't remember what it was (whatever the Masonic's guest ale was that day I would imagine). "I'll buy you a pint if you sing Dancing Queen in the pub", sounded like a challenge to me. Song sung, pint collected - thank you John.

Mischievous chairs

I couldn't see any information a pair of chairs that I saw in the National Gallery of Scotland. They've certainly got a bit of character.

If the chap on this chair worries you......

 

......then I expect this fellow is even worse.

 

The joy of rosin.

Without adding a little rosin, violin bows don't work very well. I left mine at work a few weeks ago and had to buy some more, Brand new rosin is lovely stuff and it always seems a shame to use it, but that first use has a satisfaction on a par with braking through the paper of a new jar of coffee with a teaspoon.

Afterwards, it will never look quite the same again.

Refuelling

I reckoned a little spare time in Edinburgh the other day could be usefully occupied by having a hot chocolate in the Cafe Nero on the High Street. With no regard for my waistline but great regard for my soul, I had a slice of cake as well.

At the heliport, waiting to go to work, I find that they don't go in for fine crockery. I really don't like polystyrene cups but, if that is what's available, it's better than nothing. At least they had one of Scotland's finest confections available to go with it, the Tunnocks' Teacake.

Sheds

You may remember these sheds first appearing a couple of years ago (remind yourself here). They have quickly established themselves as an iconic sign of the Arts and Crafts trail and brighten up the town in various locations throughout the year. This month they have taken on a festive appearance.

I'm pleased to report that this year there have been some small additions to the shed family.

Some people are full of "Ho Ho Ho" and others are more inclined to "Ba, Humbug!" (I'm inclined to the later), but whether you're celebrating Christmas, Yule, Admiring the solstice or just keeping your head down in the certain knowledge that it will all go away eventually, have a great end of the year. Tara for now.