Tuesday 6 December 2011

Authors note

I am still very much enjoying the fact that loads of information about the Thutmosides is unknown to me. Every now and again i read a snippet of information worth looking into. Its something i enjoy doing and often helps me to increase my own knowledge.

To my knowledge i am the only person who is logging all of Hatshepsut's items as a hobby. That said, i have to be wary of how my own research may be seen by my peers and those who are of a high status in the field who may from time to time check in on the work.

What i have noticed is that a number of people have conducted research into the life of Hatshepsut which (if i can find it) can be of use.

Such people include Luc Gabolde, Flinder's Petrie and Jaeger (full name unknown) who have conducted research into scarab (seals) from the reigns of Thutmose I, II and Hatshepsut. Wiki quotes the following:


"Flinders Petrie's older study of scarab seals noted 86 seals for Thutmose I, 19 seals for Thutmose II and 149 seals for Hatshepsut while more recent studies by Jaeger estimate a total of 241 seals for Thutmose I, 463 seals for Hatshepsut and only 65 seals for Thutmose II.[12] Hence, unless there was an abnormally low number of scarabs produced under Thutmose II, this would indicate that the king's reign was rather short-lived. On this basis, Gabolde estimated Thutmose I and II's reigns to be approximately 11 and 3 full years, respectively. Consequently, the reign length of Thutmose II has been a much debated subject among Egyptologists with little consensus given the small number of surviving documents for his reign."

From Wikipedia.

Whilst i do not have access to works quoted above- i hope to be able to use the Hatshepsut Museum Database to produce similar comparative work. What i can confirm with some authority is that the Thutmosides certainly left a few scarabs. Different shapes and sizes, colours and themes. In fact it is something which sticks out within the database (by the sheer numbers).

All i have to do now is get on with the new blog so that others can see how things are looking. Realistically, 2012 will be a busy year. It will bring me my first son and will see the growth (publicly) of the database.

Furthermore, discussions within the Hatshepsut Project Group on Facebook have given me a good idea of how we can expand in the future.  An exciting idea being floated is a new project which may or may not be called the "Hatshepsut Project Photographic Database". This (if it goes ahead) would be a wonderful way of documenting Hatshepsut via photographs. Something which is not yet available to us (to my knowledge). Far too early to say any more, but it would be a project which would be run by volunteers, free of charge to view (fingers crossed) and available to all.

Should you wish to know more, i will follow up with a post at a later date. Please feel free to join us on Facebook- you would be most welcome.

Regards,
Stuart

No comments: