tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12857960336911786172024-02-02T15:05:11.452-08:00Sarah Wisseman, authorArchaeology and murder...musings on archaeology, archaeological science and writing murder mysteries.
website: www.sarahwisseman.comSarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-47600257002155955042023-03-03T11:28:00.008-08:002023-03-03T11:37:44.692-08:00Archaeology of Health and Disease, Part II<p> ARTICLE: </p><p>“<a href="https://pufflesandhoneyadventures.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/visiting-ancient-pompeii-with-indiana-bones/">Indiana Bones</a>” visits ancient Pompeii.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">VIDEOS: YouTube video on Day in the Life of an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rvLEJrQm7g&t=2s">Egyptiandoctor</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Curator’s Corner movie, British Museum, on recent
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrbFxgDi9I&t=169s">mummy analyses</a>. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>A Humorous Medical video on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1BhsWsmjco">Galen</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
SHORT STORY: “<a href="http://www.sarahwisseman.com/short-stories.html">Death on Display</a>” by Sarah Wisseman<div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1BQvQ4gai8rN3rmZ9evgSI5ebbUgvlZQAKg7wUSWKue9oXiYstZKXNfKt1_Chsyco6NbIDftvH4SjFo3rpYJHlGFAGcdZxUQSy54BBA6B9qgTPajymvitQ6tUnCZoV4N-pah-y7Fr2pUySWzNkxua5zyLROijUQpbKk5jJqGVboTij94g6Zo7-st8tg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="143" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1BQvQ4gai8rN3rmZ9evgSI5ebbUgvlZQAKg7wUSWKue9oXiYstZKXNfKt1_Chsyco6NbIDftvH4SjFo3rpYJHlGFAGcdZxUQSy54BBA6B9qgTPajymvitQ6tUnCZoV4N-pah-y7Fr2pUySWzNkxua5zyLROijUQpbKk5jJqGVboTij94g6Zo7-st8tg" width="151" /></a></div><br /><br /></div></div>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-54119195758175665322023-02-26T11:41:00.002-08:002023-02-26T11:41:31.577-08:00Archaeology of Health and Disease, Part I<p> Recently I taught this course at our local Osher Lifelong Learning center. Here are some of the links I promised for more information or deeper dives:</p><p>An <a href="https://www.sci.news/archaeology/liang-tebo-human-11189.html">amputation</a> in the Stone Age.</p><p>MESOPOTAMIA</p><p>Very good <a href="http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/World%20Soul/demandmesomed.html">summary</a> by Prof. Nancy Demand</p><p>Online <a href=" https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/ancient-near-eastern-and-mediterranean-medicine">article</a> by Laura Zucconi, author of an excellent "deep dive" <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Medicine-Mesopotamia-Laura-Zucconi/dp/0802869831/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35HYHEBUI2KSI&keywords=ancient+medicine+from+Mesopotamia+to+rome&qid=1677440390&sprefix=ancient+medicine+from+mesopotamia+to+rome%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.c1e7b9a2-53cf-44f5-ab39-5386af17669d">book</a>, <i>Ancient Medicine from Mesopotamia to Rome </i>(2019)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLtICgUwIwj6ntWFX8WggsxzfH0iiezTUE2SZE0T44LqwDDvMaUVPS7oQXjre5gkb1tNAPjpLU__4qHBEr6L6E-h0z722ds6Ew12GSz8Fup0w36O5BqMrwIPJL0WHZ58fjhkMgwwIuOx4Fz1VY4sj2DsLpPm7dFZlt93t8MHw1qXvAYxcRsraqLNFB4A" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="217" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLtICgUwIwj6ntWFX8WggsxzfH0iiezTUE2SZE0T44LqwDDvMaUVPS7oQXjre5gkb1tNAPjpLU__4qHBEr6L6E-h0z722ds6Ew12GSz8Fup0w36O5BqMrwIPJL0WHZ58fjhkMgwwIuOx4Fz1VY4sj2DsLpPm7dFZlt93t8MHw1qXvAYxcRsraqLNFB4A" width="159" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>More on <a href="https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/entry-6081.html">Mesopotamian</a> health and medicine.</p><p>EGYPTIAN MEDICINE</p><p>Egyptian <a href="https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3741231/ancient-egyptians-used-leg-crutches-help-rehabilitate-stroke-patients-new">leg brace</a></p><p>ROMAN MEDICINE</p><p>Evidence for <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/05/pompeii-victim-had-spinal-tuberculosis-when-he-died/#:~:text=Diagnosis%3A%20Tuberculosis&text=That%20confirmed%20the%20diagnosis%2C%20and,conditions%20of%20most%20Roman%20cities.">spinal tuberculosis</a> at Pompeii.</p><p><br /></p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-13250488200440105042022-02-22T13:45:00.024-08:002022-02-23T14:18:39.896-08:00Cosmic Places and Sacred Landscapes<p> Weeks 3 and 4 of my "Discover the Ancient Sky" class covered wandering planets, key stars and constellations, and huge sites that represented sacred landscapes that are far more than solar and lunar observatories.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg1ZwsEPeX1lApZY8djIsmq34fygGg19wPsbt0mKJP2rVawsrQTcxtLRbZhGnIfFSmciwVw-7M-QQMbbpiTPS9D6ELkoP3VPeVdHvZkqHBmzUgXEwprS4dgjP4HP2W5IQYdy9QeejluLXRogB8N2h2zHob2-QyOrcONL7oAwrPYF0DQjH1xK32tw-Leg=s1024" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg1ZwsEPeX1lApZY8djIsmq34fygGg19wPsbt0mKJP2rVawsrQTcxtLRbZhGnIfFSmciwVw-7M-QQMbbpiTPS9D6ELkoP3VPeVdHvZkqHBmzUgXEwprS4dgjP4HP2W5IQYdy9QeejluLXRogB8N2h2zHob2-QyOrcONL7oAwrPYF0DQjH1xK32tw-Leg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge#/media/File:Stonehenge2007_07_30.jpg">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge#/media/File:Stonehenge2007_07_30.jpg</a><br /></p><p><b>Links to Key Sites and Monument</b>s:</p><p><a href="http://www.stonehenge-tours.com/blog.Astronomical-Alignments-at-Stonehenge.html">STONEHENGE</a></p><p><a href="https://www.exploratorium.edu/chaco/HTML/canyon.html">CHACO CANYON</a></p><p><b>Links to cultural stuff</b>:</p><p>How to read the <a href="https://www.wikihow.com/Read-the-Maya-Calendar">Maya Calendar</a></p><p><a href="https://www.salkantaytrekking.com/blog/inca-astronomy-dark-constellations-in-the-sky/">Inca astronomy</a> in South America. Also <a href=" https://faunaleye.tumblr.com/post/60938600162/incaic-ethnoastronomy">here</a>.</p><p><b>Videos seen in class</b>:</p><p><a href="https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/cahokia-celestial-native-america/cahokia-celestial-native-america/">CAHOKIA</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Lg4EPdUvo">CHACO CANYON</a></p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/CtGeBbCMb28">CHICHEN ITZA</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2K6QwYYBM">CHANKILLO</a></p><p><b>Additional Bibliography:</b></p><p>Aubrey Burl (2005) <a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/prehistoric-astronomy-and-ritual_aubrey-burl/1106170/item/4529940/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA09eQBhCxARIsAAYRiyldpvdR-v3d8mHZKfo7YIE4ZL-HPJGpRxwCSrwNif9daXsd6k1PZCEaAlUqEALw_wcB#idiq=4529940&edition=4359447">Prehistoric Astronomy and Ritual</a></p><p>J. L. Heilbron (2001) <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Church-Cathedrals-Solar-Observatories/dp/0674005368">The Sun in the Church</a>: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories</p><p>University of Maryland <a href="https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/">Archaeoastronomy</a> center</p><p class="MsoNormal">UNESCO <a href=" https://astronomicalheritage.net">portal</a>: Portal to the Heritage of Astronomy<o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><div><b>Astronomical links: </b></div><div><p>Stanford University <a href="http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/">Solar Center</a></p></div>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-59965374589548101412022-02-14T09:04:00.001-08:002022-02-14T09:04:42.103-08:00Our Wonky Moon and Lunar Alignments<p> Last week we continued with solar alignments at sites like Chankillo, Peru (see this wonderful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2K6QwYYBM">video</a>) and spent some time on the lunar orbit. Because the moon's orbital cycle is 18.6 years to repeat its tilting pattern, it is very hard to visualize. The best explanation I have found is <a href="http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel/pages/moonteaching.html">here</a>, at the University of Massachusetts Sunwheel website (a sort of mini-Stonehenge created by Prof. Judith Young).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigGbh-50roFk8pu_L22B5GmEUvxxKeFvOQHO17B_fe92aMCsJBXsk5NSmHdDe-BdTt0zDd7zjLwX-hjmzyJBBK5oidWOB_MY6zcGwRmG6glO8B8T1Y2gl3I0PXJJpKXXxPQNt1bJ640pLHceayH0GXu61wEwfH8yDNL_RkWLcatyoErG7vtO3z1yZgZA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="1024" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigGbh-50roFk8pu_L22B5GmEUvxxKeFvOQHO17B_fe92aMCsJBXsk5NSmHdDe-BdTt0zDd7zjLwX-hjmzyJBBK5oidWOB_MY6zcGwRmG6glO8B8T1Y2gl3I0PXJJpKXXxPQNt1bJ640pLHceayH0GXu61wEwfH8yDNL_RkWLcatyoErG7vtO3z1yZgZA" width="320" /></a></div> Thirteen towers at Chankillo. Source: photo by David Edgar, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanquillo#/media/File:ThirteenTowersOfChanquilloFromFortress.JPG">Wikipedia</a><br /><br /><p></p><p>Another wonderful reference is "<a href="http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/Ancient-Observatories.pdf">Ancient Observatories</a>," by Deborah Scherrer at the Solar Center at Stanford University.</p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-23782343384288516462022-02-03T09:47:00.004-08:002022-02-03T09:53:10.076-08:00Why study ancient stargazers?<p> During the month of February 2022, I'm teaching an Olli course on Discovering the Ancient Sky: The Archaeology of Astronomy.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"><b>Why study ancient stargazers?</b>
Because people discovered thousands of years ago that being able to predict
celestial events such as eclipses of the sun or the flooding of major rivers
gave them control over human resources and human behavior. How much of early
astrology and astronomy is based on observation vs. mathematics? We owe a considerable debt to ancient Babylonia and Egypt for their accurate
observations and timekeeping and to Greek philosophers for their views of the
cosmos. However, what people were able to observe depends on several things:
time of year and season (controlled by the earth’s movement around the sun and
the earth’s tilt), and latitude. How ancient sites were oriented depended on
what various cultures considered important (e.g. direction of Nile flow and
rising of the sun in Egypt <i>vs</i>. Cahokia’s lunar and Milky Way
alignments).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">I consulted many books and websites to prepare for this class. Here are some of my favorites: </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1PWzUoBvQFD2Bo1DzmBgo_-kfCh2qj3eucmIjptxnGiPBKOtpiEBs_990cW27uJ_EFMiQUO0dAHRjE1Ya6AP_AnnTK5ozmI60mEyKbCx7UfcZk4_NaOG0G_mBivgnCxxAuqr-j_Rxy06Ex15olzOxhW9Z4PxxgxLZqKnR8NLSyx9qtrdk0nSyQMI_1g=s500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="438" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1PWzUoBvQFD2Bo1DzmBgo_-kfCh2qj3eucmIjptxnGiPBKOtpiEBs_990cW27uJ_EFMiQUO0dAHRjE1Ya6AP_AnnTK5ozmI60mEyKbCx7UfcZk4_NaOG0G_mBivgnCxxAuqr-j_Rxy06Ex15olzOxhW9Z4PxxgxLZqKnR8NLSyx9qtrdk0nSyQMI_1g=s320" width="280" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u style="text-align: left;"><br /></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>*Taylor, Ken. <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Celestial-Geometry-Understanding-Astronomical-Meanings/dp/1786782707/ref=sr_1_3?crid=T93OECEDWBGQ&keywords=celestial+geometry&qid=1643910542&sprefix=celestial+geometry%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-3">Celestial Geometry: Understanding the Meanings of Ancient Sites</a></i> (2012).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">*Hadingham, Evan. <i>Early Man and the Cosmos</i> (1984).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">*Cornell, James. <i>The First Stargazers: An Introduction to
the Origins of</i> Astronomy (1981).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">*Aveni, Anthony. <i>People and the Sky: Our Ancestors and
the Cosmos </i>(2008).<i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal">Aveni, Anthony. <i>Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in
Three Great Ancient</i> <i>Cultures</i> (1997).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Moche, Dinah L. <i>Astronomy: A Self-teaching Guide,</i> 8<sup>th</sup>
Edition (2015).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Marshak, Stephen and Robert Rauber. <i>Earth Science: The
Earth, the Atmosphere, and Space</i>, especially Part 5: “Our Solar System and
Beyond” (2020 edition).<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">For a video on the earth's tilt and how that affects the seasons, go <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3Y5bzNDiU">here</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal">For the video on New Grange, Ireland that I showed during the first class, go <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XAFJ_FdOA">here</a>.</p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-85019070485738315022021-03-17T09:12:00.002-07:002021-03-17T09:23:12.570-07:00Mapping sites from above and Cahokia<p>In our last lecture for "Overlooked Archaeology," we discussed LiDAR and satellite photography as well as older remote-sensing techniques for discovering and mapping archaeological sites.</p><p>LiDAR</p><p>Good <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39ENPZ3Xe0I">summary</a> of LiDAR technique with examples from around the world.</p><p>SPACE ARCHAEOLOGY</p><p>Great Ted talk by archaeologist <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_parcak_archaeology_from_space">Sarah Parcak</a></p><p>Wonderful book (available on Amazon):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHqeNJMMBSDLt7as0GzkP_5jm9ZQMoSgtIiXz3K094WPcAwoaYHBvoK0gwU4DqvPsWdwAxK4j5ntMoUUZeqSaKOZrwjWTUBP_JE1tDMCcYtr57LtiStJwwgj1ylCrL_0heugGFsp1nh0c/s500/parcak+book.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHqeNJMMBSDLt7as0GzkP_5jm9ZQMoSgtIiXz3K094WPcAwoaYHBvoK0gwU4DqvPsWdwAxK4j5ntMoUUZeqSaKOZrwjWTUBP_JE1tDMCcYtr57LtiStJwwgj1ylCrL_0heugGFsp1nh0c/s320/parcak+book.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">CAHOKIA: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Best <a href="https://univofillinois.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=a58c2043100d4f3a891dc83d9bc00c2e">website</a>, hands-down. Called "Re-envisioning Greater Cahokia," it is an interactive map with tons of information on recent discoveries.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Videos</b>: Hour-long <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnwPgFmqKrs">lecture</a> by archaeologist Timothy Pauketat</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Shorter <a href="https://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/cahokia-celestial-native-america/cahokia-celestial-native-america/">introduction</a> to a longer PBS video</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjR-BqNx6rNkaR587rUnkZQ">YouTube channel</a> for ISAS. includes hour-long lecture on Cahokia's red goddesses by Tom Emerson and a short clip on current use of drones as well as other interesting clips.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Articles and book excerpts on Cahokia:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/808478"> Tim Pauketat</a> on Cahokia causeway and
cosmology</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;">An</span><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/101363.html" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> excerpt</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;"> from </span><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo3637776.html" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><i>Cahokia:
Mirror of the Cosmos</i></a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;"> by Sally A. Kitt Chappell</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/celtslargestcacheeverfound.htm" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Grossmann celts</a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt;"> and Nick Wisseman discovery </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p></span></div><br /><p><br /></p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-50900357215825536952021-03-10T14:18:00.001-08:002021-03-10T14:25:57.962-08:00Health and Disease in ancient times...<p> This topic is from the third lecture of "Overlooked Archaeology." We covered heart disease and many other ailments in overstudied mummies such as the Italian Iceman and the Chinese noblewoman Lady Dai. We also discussed DNA studies of teeth, which reveal diet, disease, and migration patterns, ancient surgery and medicine, evidence of tooth decay in skeletal remains, and early dental remedies.</p><p><u>Videos</u>: </p><p>Carolyn Freiwald on <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_freiwald_the_hidden_history_found_in_your_teeth">Tales from Teet</a>h</p><p>A humorous medical clip about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1BhsWsmjco">Galen</a>, ancient Rome's most notorious doctor</p><p><u>Websites</u>: </p><p>The Iceman's poor <a href="https://www.livescience.com/47114-otzi-had-heart-disease-genes.html#:~:text=Past%20research%20has%20revealed%20that,of%20atherosclerosis%2C%20in%20his%20arteries.">health</a></p><p>Lady Dai, Chinese <a href="https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/11/the-mystery-of-lady-dais-preserved-mummy.html">mummy</a></p><p>Woman the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/opinion/women-hunter-leader.html">Hunter </a></p><p>The Beaded <a href="https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/391694">burial</a> at Cahokia</p><p>The death of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/science/pliny-archaeology-skull-vesuvius.html">Pliny</a> from going too near an erupting volcano</p><p><br /></p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-39352470621578372512021-03-03T07:52:00.000-08:002021-03-03T07:52:56.651-08:00Overlooked Archaeology, lecture 2 notes and links<p> During our second lecture, we finished up a discussion of ancient pets and animals in religion and moved on to ancient sanitation (especially in Roman cities) and the procuring of food before corn agriculture in Illinois. The last major topic was consumables: wine, beer, olive oil, insect repellent, chocolate, and the "black drink" of North America.</p><p><u>Videos</u>:</p><p>A cherished <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POv6ns0jHHE">pet bobkitten</a> in Illinois</p><p>Plumbing at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cU0H58eG2A">Petra</a> in Jordan that allowed for gardens and swimming pools in a desert setting</p><p><u>Interesting links</u>:</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Plumbing: great article on <a href="https://phys.org/news/2015-11-toilets-sewers-ancient-roman-sanitation.html">Roman sanitation</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>V</o:p>egetarian <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/news/2102-140512-egypt-vegetarian-diet">diet in Egypt</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How the Egyptian <a href="https://www.livescience.com/28961-ancient-giza-pyramid-builders-camp-unearthed.html#:~:text=The%20workers'%20town%20that%20archaeologists,house%20laborers%20building%20Menkaure's%20pyramid.&text=The%20builders%20of%20the%20famous,workers'%20town%20near%20the%20pyramids.">pyramid workers</a> got fed</p><p class="MsoNormal">Mesopotamian <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mesopotamian-recipes">recipes</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Early French <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/103-1309/trenches/1143-chemical-analysis-shows-first-french-winemaking">wine-making</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;">C</span></o:p></span><span class="MsoHyperlink">ahokia <a href="https://www.livescience.com/22136-caffeinated-black-drink-first-city.html">black drink </a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-17828566534862306142021-02-23T13:33:00.000-08:002021-02-23T13:33:00.139-08:00Overlooked Archaeology<p><span style="text-indent: 0in;">I am currently teaching a course, “Overlooked Archaeology, at the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at the University of Illinois (February-March 2021). The
title “overlooked” means topics I have not addressed before, not ones that
professional archaeologists ignore. It allows me to explore the odder byways of
my profession while still incorporating recent advances and new information that
I discover in magazines like <i>Archaeology</i>, <i>The Biblical Archaeology Review</i>, or from
headlines in the <i>New York Times</i> or <i>New Scientist</i>.</span></p><p><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><b>Class Description</b>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-prop-change: "Sarah Wisseman" 20210223T1505; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Hollywood archaeology features spectacular discoveries of
jewel-laden tombs and lost temples. In everyday archaeology, many discoveries
are made far from the original site: in the laboratory, in a museum, or on a
computer. Technological advances, especially in the biological sciences, make
it possible to investigate everything from ancient medicine to the evolution of
agriculture. New kinds of imaging and remote sensing help us read obscured
texts and map roadways and underground structures. This class explores some of
the odder byways of archaeology: domesticated dogs, beer-making, dental health,
pleasure gardens, and locating new sites from space.</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">In lecture one, we
talked about how the discipline of archaeology began with excavating large
public buildings (tombs, temples, meeting halls) and collecting inorganic
materials (metal, stone, and ceramic). Over time, the focus has shifted to domestic
architecture and the artifacts of daily life: private homes, garbage pits, the
graves of commoners, and even historic privies. I introduced the domestic
architecture of three sites widely separated in space and time: Skara Brae (Scotland),
Karanis (Egypt), and Ostia, Italy. We also began a section on ancient pets with
the domestication of dogs.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> <b>Video links</b>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFqqZn0ZUxY">Skara Brae</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiCUFlLFazY" style="text-indent: 0in;">Roman Ostia</a><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><b>Book recommendations</b>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrALh4SfKFDI2mOA9BHh7R7sZC867YRo1iLr5h0o4fjdxiELpjIgnUoGNZsYaMLgARMXhLMnZ_x3qhx1BScBkrZ4RMSeMw6F_2jDXGgkLABZmQI-FCyu3bMoF3qMUZXs6MJLZyqM7oDROs/s499/archaeology+from+space.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrALh4SfKFDI2mOA9BHh7R7sZC867YRo1iLr5h0o4fjdxiELpjIgnUoGNZsYaMLgARMXhLMnZ_x3qhx1BScBkrZ4RMSeMw6F_2jDXGgkLABZmQI-FCyu3bMoF3qMUZXs6MJLZyqM7oDROs/s320/archaeology+from+space.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcLP02Xflva36srXO8VRypXbIT7QqpjHxgDLOlBxiw2HKIjbZMcxM4V-Vi660flBgKzJhf3VbrDdbXawU3ijepfX0BlrlgNCwBtmdiAu8ZATW19OMHlazd1iZeFCKFbdWgT0yvA-Nfibr/s499/karanis+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="499" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcLP02Xflva36srXO8VRypXbIT7QqpjHxgDLOlBxiw2HKIjbZMcxM4V-Vi660flBgKzJhf3VbrDdbXawU3ijepfX0BlrlgNCwBtmdiAu8ZATW19OMHlazd1iZeFCKFbdWgT0yvA-Nfibr/w257-h201/karanis+book.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;">Sarah Parcak, </span><i style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;">Archaeology
from Space</i></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;">Paul Bahn, <i>The Bluffer’s
Guide to Archaeology</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in;"><i>Karanis: A Roman
town in Egypt</i> (Kelsey Museum Publication 1)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Authors who write wonderful
<u>fiction</u> about ancient Rome and Romans:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;">Lindsey Davis,
Simon Scarrow, Steven Saylor (all use rich historical detail <span style="text-indent: 0in;">and archaeological records)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p><span style="text-indent: 0in;">*For more
archaeological fiction, check out this review site: </span><a href="https://mvac.uwlax.edu/book-reviews/" style="text-indent: 0in;">https://mvac.uwlax.edu/book-reviews/</a><span style="text-indent: 0in;">
(includes a few of my own novels)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><u>Resources for
Illinois and Midwestern archaeology</u>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Our own <a href="http://isas.illinois.edu">IllinoisState Archaeological Survey</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;">East Central Illinois
Archaeological Society (ECIAS), part of the Illinois Association for the
Advancement of Archaeology: <a href="http://www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/easthome.htm">http://www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa/easthome.htm</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;">Local lectures and
some volunteer opportunities are available (and will return after COVID). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;">Midwestern cultures
(focus on Wisconsin): <a href="https://mvac.uwlax.edu/PreEuropeanPeople/">https://mvac.uwlax.edu/PreEuropeanPeople/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<!--[endif]--></div><br /><p></p>Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-89963539410688662362020-06-14T15:02:00.002-07:002020-06-14T15:02:50.066-07:00Famous Forgeries and Other Works of Art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today's blog accompanies a lecture, "Unmasking Art Forgeries," I am giving at our local Osher Lifelong Learning Center.<br />
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Below are the links I promised.<br />
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<b>THE CASE OF THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM KOUROS</b></div>
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One of my earlier <a href="https://sarahwisseman.blogspot.com/2007/08/mystery-of-getty-kouros.html">blogs</a> on this topic (a summary of the research findings) </div>
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The Getty museums's own catalog entry on the <a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/10930/unknown-maker-kouros-greek-about-530-bc-or-modern-forgery/">Kouros</a></div>
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<b>THE CASE OF THE SHROUD OF TURIN</b></div>
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A good summary <a href="https://www.shroud.com/">website</a> (there are many, many more if you google the Shroud!)</div>
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Microscopist Walter McCrone's <a href="http://www.mccroneinstitute.org/v/64/the-shroud-of-turin">research</a>, with links to his technical articles</div>
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<o:p><b>THE CASE OF THE GEORGIA O'KEEFFE WATERCOLORS</b></o:p></div>
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Magazine <a href="https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2000/july/the-case-of-the-counterfeit-okeeffes/">article</a> from 2000.</div>
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A paper conservator's <a href="http://www.thepaperfixer.com/OKeeffe.htm">report</a></div>
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Finally, although this is an older book, it is a wonderful summary of how science can help museums evaluate their collections: <b>Science and the Past</b>, edited by Sheridan Boman (University of Toronto Press, 1991)</div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-75265743891531883252020-02-16T13:46:00.003-08:002020-02-16T13:48:02.244-08:00Altamira and portable art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last week we viewed the paintings of <a href="https://www.donsmaps.com/altamirapaintings.html">Altamira</a>, also called the "Spanish Lascaux." Discovered too early by a father and daughter (who caught his attention by saying, "look, Daddy, oxen!") Saultola was ridiculed by leading prehistorians. The paintings are too colorful, too wonderful to have been made by Paleolithic artists--they must be fakes. This was typical of scholarly thought of the time, because believing the paintings were real would have turned theories of what prehistoric humans were capable of upside down.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM6IxB22AotGhmlSS5dxziwJds4rs1ZXDvD6qToA2oqBb3mxl7mG6_XyiyJ1C26qqf4DrbNHKs1r2aOMKhsbO13vSQPbPmFcgaLGnjLislCISTkWXvuja5TO3Cmj_lzzWeTussZYbu8eK/s1600/978-1-4419-0465-2_1_Part_Fig2-1264_HTML.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="454" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGM6IxB22AotGhmlSS5dxziwJds4rs1ZXDvD6qToA2oqBb3mxl7mG6_XyiyJ1C26qqf4DrbNHKs1r2aOMKhsbO13vSQPbPmFcgaLGnjLislCISTkWXvuja5TO3Cmj_lzzWeTussZYbu8eK/s320/978-1-4419-0465-2_1_Part_Fig2-1264_HTML.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
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We also examined the lifestyles of the people who painted the caves of southwestern France and northern Spain. Contrary to popular belief, these people were not just "big game hunters," but mobile foragers who made full use of available plants, small animals, birds, and fish to feed themselves. They also fashioned stone and bone tools, many decorated with pigment and incised designs, and had a complex system of geometric <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%A2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSF4zk2nsTU">signs</a> (National Geographic video on sign interpretation).<br />
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Whether the signs constitute an early form of language or writing is very much up for debate, but some signs--especially the red dots used on certain rock formations and near the end of passages clearly had meaning. Did the dots mean "great acoustic space," or "don't go any further, the cave gets dangerous"? No one knows.<br />
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One student sent me a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9KnOjsc0g4">video</a> on the evolution of language, which discusses a theory that the key difference between Neanderthals and <i>Homo sapiens</i> is that the latter had full speech capability and that this gave modern humans a survival advantage over Neanderthals. The video is intriguing but does not take into account the most recent discoveries of Neanderthal capabilities for abstract thought and representational art. And scholars disagree about how much Neanderthals could speak: their vocal tracts were sufficiently developed for a range of one-syllable sounds which, when combined with geometric signs on painted walls and decorated objects, could have communicated a range of ideas.<br />
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<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230990-700-in-search-of-the-very-first-coded-symbols/">More</a> (New Scientist article 2016) on geometric signs and work of Genevieve von Petzinger</div>
Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-7657201787599967112020-02-10T15:27:00.001-08:002020-02-10T15:27:26.186-08:00More Paleolithic Fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In week 2, we looked at the Ice Age environment for cave paintings in Europe. Climate data (from pollen analysis and oxygen isotopes) shows considerable <a href="https://www.donsmaps.com/venusabripataud.html#patauddig">variation in temperature</a> and humidity as the glaciers advanced and retreated. Also, southwestern France and northern Spain, the locations of the caves we are studying were for the most part ice-free.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfPaaj55WUxhnQYZRgxxVt5VDAwt_OjLSHU9HPlnEUCWBc_79crABdEEW5o1G-S895yHXz-0TMwTsslNDvseHV5iWZUnxXHtE0x5QlbmgQuowquTXq1luT7LZBKlisAeDz30nlwIwiBDD/s1600/978-1-4419-0465-2_1_Part_Fig2-1264_HTML.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="454" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGfPaaj55WUxhnQYZRgxxVt5VDAwt_OjLSHU9HPlnEUCWBc_79crABdEEW5o1G-S895yHXz-0TMwTsslNDvseHV5iWZUnxXHtE0x5QlbmgQuowquTXq1luT7LZBKlisAeDz30nlwIwiBDD/s320/978-1-4419-0465-2_1_Part_Fig2-1264_HTML.jpg" width="318" /></a> Altamira ceiling</div>
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The environment was rich with large and small fauna, plants, and fish (for those living near the coast), so it makes sense that people of the Paleolithic did actually have some leisure time to spend making art--both portable and wall art. To get a good sense of the full range of living creatures, it's important to look at both kinds of art (many animals depicted on small rock plaques and carved bones are not the ones commonly seen in the cave paintings).<br />
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The stars of our class so far are European Neanderthals who were living and painting in Spain at least <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/22/17041426/neanderthals-cave-painting-spain-uranium-dating">65,000 years ago</a>. A host of recent articles in newspapers and journals attest to Neanderthals' capabilities in managing fire, cooking, preparing pigments, and painting animals and symbols on cave walls.<br />
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Great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZOKOXBruo">video</a> on Neanderthal capabilities in Spanish caves.<br />
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<a href="https://www.archaeology.org/news/6803-180719-neanderthal-fire-starter">Article</a><a href="https://www.archaeology.org/news/6803-180719-neanderthal-fire-starter"> </a>on Neanderthal fire starter<br />
Another book I have found extremely useful: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Through-Ice-Paul-Bahn/dp/0520213068/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=paul+bahn+and+vertut+journey+through+the+ice+age&qid=1581376945&sr=8-2">Journey through the Ice Age</a> (1997), by Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut<br />
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-13176945080612420352020-02-03T15:49:00.001-08:002020-02-03T15:51:22.833-08:00Art and Archaeology of Stone Age Europe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am teaching a course this month at our local <a href="http://olli.illinois.edu/">Osher Lifelong Learning Institute</a> with 100 students who are aged 50 and better!<br />
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The topic was inspired by a National Geographic <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/destinations/europe/land/human-origins-france-spain/">trip</a> to the Paleolithic painted caves of France and Spain two years ago.<br />
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<img alt="Lascaux painting.jpg" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Lascaux_painting.jpg" /><br />
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Lascaux: aurochs (oxen), horses, and deer</div>
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<i><b>The class explores European cave art, especially the art
from painted caves in southwestern France and northern Spain. What are the
limits of the evidence, and what can we learn from cave paintings? Do the
paintings represent the spiritual world instead of daily life? What is the
relationship between painted animals, shamanism, and subsistence? Did women
create some of the paintings? Which caves were also used as meeting places and
trade centers? Other topics will include portable art, the use of fire for
lighting, heating, and cooking, and how people moved across the landscapes of early
Europe and the Americas.</b></i></div>
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Here is a Nat Geo <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjejoT1gFOc">video</a> with a great introduction to the painted caves of France. </div>
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An Australian named Don Hitchcock has created an amazing <a href="http://donsmaps.com/">website</a> about Paleolithic sites all over Europe, with quite a lot of other information! This was important for me since we were not allowed to take photographs during most of our trip (the caves that are still open needed to have their paintings protected from bright lights and the CO2 of thousands of visitors).</div>
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Here are two of my favorite books on the subject:</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Paul Bahn, <i>The
First Artists</i></span><span class="a-size-extra-large"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">: <i>In Search of the World's Oldest
Art</i></span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;"> (2017)<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">Paul Bahn, <i>Cave Art: A Guide to the
Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe</i> (2007).<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">I will post more images and websites in the next three weeks.</span></div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-15923553388478851562019-10-24T09:33:00.000-07:002019-10-24T12:56:31.798-07:00Two new audiobooks!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am thrilled to have two of the Flora Garibaldi Art History mysteries now available as audiobooks.<br />
The first one is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Burnt-Siena-Garibaldi-History-Mystery/dp/B07Y28H1N1/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=burnt+sienna+sarah+wisseman&qid=1571946760&sr=8-2-fkmr0">Burnt Siena</a></i>, in which Flora discovers her Sienese conservation firm is involved in criminal practices:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyTN1XJq7vrxFaomEPCFmPkyIKS63ySXAscZ9PveVzfFIjcUvidgyWLUKtG3yOc8VDKdozPDfzKxwO2UqXngw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The second is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Catacomb/dp/B07ZCPNZZK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=catacomb+sarah+wisseman&qid=1571946837&s=audible&sr=1-1">Catacomb</a></i>, in Flora and her policeman boyfriend organize an international search for lost World War II art under the city of Rome:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz4rWVDXKMd-iw2UhpL_4C7k_uL4hkn8MxpyuzVqUR3xhBr5g5hsRPIYWNngkFetF8VW6j8xt4R6vBSCQfe4g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Both are narrated by the talented <a href="https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A3HQNBGV08UM8M">Carrie Coello</a> through acx.com/Audible, and both have new covers produced by Carrie's graphic designer husband, Ben Coello! Both books are available through Amazon, Audible, and ITunes.<br />
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For any author who has thought about doing audio editions but has not yet done it, I had a great experience with Audible/acx and would be glad to chat about it.</div>
Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-84426331882845990082019-09-02T09:58:00.000-07:002019-09-02T09:59:52.263-07:00The Botticelli Caper is published!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcufcKFcWl7LOtTpaE_mD9tr3tRf5j8Wey9_2olGdy28NWVkeCZjtGvmSabndmBMqHLuQFudvEgVCvBeyhe54bSkuChN1PTeoNJdwhPwC-K5wUOv0jysjePW42xBVXdkoBfnLj4QZk0ou/s1600/TheBotticelliCaper-WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="667" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkcufcKFcWl7LOtTpaE_mD9tr3tRf5j8Wey9_2olGdy28NWVkeCZjtGvmSabndmBMqHLuQFudvEgVCvBeyhe54bSkuChN1PTeoNJdwhPwC-K5wUOv0jysjePW42xBVXdkoBfnLj4QZk0ou/s200/TheBotticelliCaper-WEB.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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The third mystery in my
Flora Garibaldi Art History series, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Botticelli-Caper-Sarah-Wisseman/dp/1613096089/ref=sr_1_2?crid=12MLBUFBLDSZX&keywords=the+botticelli+caper&qid=1567442202&s=gateway&sprefix=the+bottic%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-2"><b><i>The Botticelli Caper</i></b>,</a> just appeared
for sale on Amazon (as of September 1), in both trade paperback and ebook. <o:p></o:p></div>
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During my last trip to Italy with my daughter Emily, we visited
the Uffizi in Florence. While Emily gazed at famous paintings and sculpture, I
was busy studying unmarked doorways, security cameras, and guard placement to
further the following plot:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Conservator Flora Garibaldi discovers that several paintings in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery have been replaced by clever forgeries. Where are the original artworks, and who’s in charge of the smuggling operation? Flora’s efforts to help the police make her the target of a criminal mastermind and murderer.” <br />
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How could this happen? Today the Uffizi is a modern, well-protected museum. However, I deliberately set my story about ten years ago when the old palace that houses the Uffizi was undergoing the latest in a long series of renovations (security systems being revamped, lots of workmen coming and going, construction and packing materials always underfoot, etc.). When you also know that the Uffizi is connected by a tunnel to another palace on its north side and (via a famous bridge) to another palace on its south side, my plot becomes more plausible. <br />
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My other book news is the production of my novel <b><i>Burnt Siena</i></b> (the first Flora mystery) as an audiobook. Authors who retain their audio rights can produce their own audio editions through Audible/ACX (the audiobook wing of Amazon). Thanks to an amazing narrator, <b>Carrie Coello</b>, the process has been both fun and enlightening. Here is the audio cover (created by graphic designer <b>Ben Coello</b>): <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQKDhEYtdxmgJKQw3eGhBrEu20gG9NSaFDbLu3cgLgsrnVXzDqoZxWMOMR42bc4UGQr3_a1Etg6sZuvJudn1LcZquTpRSKVzOPROOLaS2y5lsEEyBvmAgGyqwULcbbg8dJzbuQhUz08Gh/s1600/Burnt_Siena_Cover.png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQKDhEYtdxmgJKQw3eGhBrEu20gG9NSaFDbLu3cgLgsrnVXzDqoZxWMOMR42bc4UGQr3_a1Etg6sZuvJudn1LcZquTpRSKVzOPROOLaS2y5lsEEyBvmAgGyqwULcbbg8dJzbuQhUz08Gh/s200/Burnt_Siena_Cover.png" /></a><br />
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The audiobook will be available on Amazon by mid-September.</div>
Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-1694994396086059552019-07-09T13:30:00.003-07:002019-07-09T13:43:46.328-07:00New Editions of Earlier Books<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently I received the rights back on two of my novels, <i>The House of the Sphinx and </i><i>The Bootlegger's Nephew </i>from my former publisher Hilliard and Harris. Using Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon, I created new covers and trade paperback and ebooks for each title. Here they are:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeSRBpmdlwW2YfSVfCCjmAs65g1BBjXfBR_QMZXPSfqTuXlyBUYyejvNGxD4gjuTob2EzpcCkkRWxGM_QZ3pD0CgEyHWcW3MaQLA81nGhabiw4xuaPprV1a08WL5ADpYpSOZNX_9Q_oH8/s1600/new+sphinx+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="218" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEeSRBpmdlwW2YfSVfCCjmAs65g1BBjXfBR_QMZXPSfqTuXlyBUYyejvNGxD4gjuTob2EzpcCkkRWxGM_QZ3pD0CgEyHWcW3MaQLA81nGhabiw4xuaPprV1a08WL5ADpYpSOZNX_9Q_oH8/s320/new+sphinx+cover.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/House-Sphinx-Sarah-Wisseman/dp/1591332958/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=the+house+of+the+sphinx+by+sarah+wisseman&qid=1562703921&s=gateway&sr=8-3">Buy the book</a></div>
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This cover was produced using my own painting (watercolor and Prisma pencil). It was a painting class assignment: paint two views of the same object on the same piece of paper. I made the eyes as sinister as possible:) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgSzGEHUGPYXkAJRllingow4YfTao9NkYMgTZ1toZBWmXVxHtPADmlTIFY-d7QfyfyTdKMrcy54EZM_lwPzY8LEoejX9ffrKDQACPyI9kPzo1E2i67uoJwiedPBDngqPPlO45CkOtfI3v/s1600/bootleggerpapernewcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgSzGEHUGPYXkAJRllingow4YfTao9NkYMgTZ1toZBWmXVxHtPADmlTIFY-d7QfyfyTdKMrcy54EZM_lwPzY8LEoejX9ffrKDQACPyI9kPzo1E2i67uoJwiedPBDngqPPlO45CkOtfI3v/s320/bootleggerpapernewcover.jpg" width="212" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bootleggers-Nephew-Sarah-Wisseman/dp/1079144161/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+bootleggers+nephew+by+sarah+wisseman&qid=1562703996&s=gateway&sr=8-1">Buy the book</a></div>
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This cover uses a photograph of my grandmother Edith from the 1920s. Although the book title has "nephew" in it, the protagonist's daughter plays a larger role in the story. The new edition also includes a historical supplement about east central Illinois during the 1920s.</div>
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Both books are available in ebook format as well as paperback.</div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-46801010213053722682018-10-29T15:45:00.003-07:002018-10-31T13:20:10.618-07:00The Dead Sea Scrolls Revisited<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<img alt="Image result for dead sea scrolls images public domain" height="320" src="https://www.goodfreephotos.com/albums/israel/other-israel/temple-scroll-of-the-dead-sea-scroll-in-israel.png" width="291" /><br />
Recently I taught a course on the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), with the subtitle <i>The Intersection between Archaeology and Religion</i>, at the <a href="http://olli.illinois.edu/">Osher Lifelong Learning Institute</a> at the University of Illinois. It was a marvelous experience due to my wonderful co-teacher, Janet E. Guthrie, and the mature, alert, curious students at Olli.<br />
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<b>Course description</b>: <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The discovery and interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls radically changed our understanding of biblical archaeology, the development of the Bible, and the history of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Who were the people of Qumran? How did their beliefs and practices differ from those of other Jewish sects of the first and second centuries BCE? What does archaeology tell us about the scroll librarians and how they lived? What is the relationship between the scrolls and the Bible? This four-week class, taught by a retired archaeologist and a retired pastor, will explore the historical and archaeological context of the scrolls, the lifestyle of the people who wrote them, and the implications of these ancient documents for religious history. </span><br />
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Here are some of our resources for anyone who wants to explore this fascinating topic:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">BIBLIOGRAPHY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Note: The best starting places for learning about the scrolls are the overview by James C. VanderKam, <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls Today</i></b> and the edited volume Davies et al., <b><i>The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls.</i></b><b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Collins, John J. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography</i></b>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2013. A volume in the Lives of Great Religious Books series. <i>Includes an Appendix identifying “Personalities in the Discovery and Subsequent Controversies.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Davies, Philip R., Brooke, George J., & Philip R. Callaway, <b><i>The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls</i></b>. Thames and Hudson, 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Flint, Peter W. & James C. VanderKam, eds. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment</i></b>. 2 volumes. Leiden: Brill, 1998 & 1999.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[Josephus]. <b><i>The Works of Flavius Josephus</i></b><i> </i>(translated by William Whiston), available online through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. </span><span class="Hyperlink0"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/">http://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For a detailed description of the Essenes, see <i>The War of the Jews</i>, Book 2, Chapter 8. Jewish sects are also discussed in <i>Antiquities of the Jews</i>, Book 18, Chapter 1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lim, Timothy H. & John J. Collins, eds. <b><i>The Oxford Handbook of The Dead Sea Scrolls. </i></b> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Magness, Jodi. <b><i>The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.</i></b> </span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 20</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">02.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Magness, Jodi. <b><i>The Archaeology of the Holy Land: From the Destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the Muslim Conquest</i></b> (2012).<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Martinez, Florentino Garcia. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English.</i></b> Second Edition. Leiden: E. J. Brill & Grand Rapids, MI: Wm Eerdmans Publishing, 1996. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ulrich, Eugene. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible.</i></b> Leiden: Brill, 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">VanderKam, James C. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible.</i></b> </span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Publishing, 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">VanderKam, James C. <b><i>The Dead Sea Scrolls Today.</i></b> </span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing,</span><span lang="NL" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2010. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">VanderKam, James C. <b><i>An Introduction to Early Judaism.</i></b> Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">VanderKam, James & Peter Flint. <b><i>The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity.</i></b> San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<img alt="Image result for dead sea scrolls images public domain" height="150" src="https://media.beliefnet.com/~/media/photos-with-attribution/places/qumran-cave-01_credit-peter-van-der-sluijs-wikimedia.jpg?h=318" width="200" /> The caves near Qumran where many scrolls were found</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">WEBSITES (the best of the best)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">**Israeli Department of Antiquities: </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/">http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/</a> <b>Includes photos of scrolls, detailed information, lots of resources. n.b.: this website includes scrolls from other caves south of Qumran (a larger corpus than we dealt with in this course)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">**Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls: </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/">http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/</a> <b>Includes a Virtual Tour of the settlement of Qumran led by archaeologist Jodi Magness</b></span></span><br />
<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="http://virtualqumran.huji.ac.il/tour/VirtualTourIntroduction.htm">http://virtualqumran.huji.ac.il/tour/VirtualTourIntroduction.htm</a></b></span></span><br />
<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span> <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Library of Congress exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a very useful glossary: </b></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/">https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/</a></span><br />
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<b>SPECIFIC SCROLLS</b>:<br />
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<a href="http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/">The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls</a><br />
<a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/featured-scrolls">Images and summaries</a> of scrolls<br />
<a href="http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah">The Great Isaiah Scroll</a><br />
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Scroll fragments from <a href="https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/manuscript/4Q1-1">Cave 4</a></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MORE WEBSITES ON RECENT DISCOVERIES AND ONGOING CONTROVERSIES:</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/dead-sea-scrolls/ancient-scribe-links-qumran-scrolls-to-masada/">Qumran Scrolls and Masada</a></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/scrollmeaning.html">Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls</a></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.unmuseum.org/copper.htm">The controversial Copper Scroll</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/dead-sea-scrolls/new-eyeballs-on-ancient-texts/">New Eyeballs on Ancient Texts</a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.worldofthebible.com/new-discoveries-in-qumran/">New Discoveries in Qumran</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-israeli-researchers-decipher-one-of-last-undecoded-dead-sea-scrolls-1.5748695">Essene Calendar Deciphered</a></div>
<a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/qumfort.shtml">Qumran as Fortress</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-skeletal-evidence-could-put-decades-old-debate-over-qumran-settlers-to-rest/">Skeletons at Qumran</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2006/061113/full/news061113-5.html">Poor Health at Qumran</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNxPA0PKFNI">Animated map</a> of rulers of ancient Middle East<br />
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/22/us/bible-museum-fake-scrolls/index.html">Fake DSS </a>at the Museum of the Bible<br />
<a href="http://www.bpnews.net/33954">High-Tech</a> and DSS<br />
<a href="https://members.bib-arch.org/collections/dead-sea-scrolls?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=BHDLibrary%20Explorer%20Paid%20Subs&utm_campaign=Paid%2009-06-18">Articles </a>on the DSS in the Biblical Archaeology Society library (you may have to join BAS to access these, but it is well worth it. Lots of material on biblical archaeology in general)<br />
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My mystery novel set in the Dead Sea region, but with different texts (the Gnoststic Gospels) at the heart of the story:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Two archaeologists race to find an ancient manuscript in Israel before Christian fanatics destroy it. <a href="http://sarahwisseman.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-travel-in-your-pajamas.html">More</a> about the novel. Author website: <a href="http://www.sarahwisseman.com/">www.sarahwisseman.com</a></span><br />
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-44737478886926084932018-06-30T11:39:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:39:57.281-07:00Interview with Sarah Wisseman (first published on Author Expressions)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Florence, Italy (the setting of my next mystery)</i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tell us a little about your background<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I grew up in a house filled with mystery books with parents who loved to read. I often forgot to do my chores because I had my head in a book, and the love of reading lasted long after the flashlight-under-the-covers stage. History came alive for me when I went on an archaeological excavation in Israel after my freshman year in college. That experience changed my life. I returned to Israel for my junior year, and then earned a doctorate in archaeology. My work career at the University of Illinois was spent in museums and laboratories, studying ancient pottery, metalwork, and mummies. Now I write mysteries about archaeology, art forgery, and the illegal antiquities market.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tell us a bit about your two series. Are your characters’ careers based on your real life experience?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Archaeologist and museum curator Lisa Donahue is the heroine of the first four mysteries. She’s a lot like me, but a bit younger, and has unusual complications in her life—such as two marriages, step children, and a tendency to run into dead bodies at her museum job. Flora Garibaldi, my current heroine, is only in her twenties. Flora is a half-Italian professional paintings conservator (I have no Italian heritage, and I volunteered in a conservation lab for two years).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How do you “get to know” your characters before and while you’re writing the books?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I have a character file on my computer and add information to it about each person before and during the writing process. I write down family background, personality quirks, dark secrets, and motives for each person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How do you construct your plots? Do you outline or do you write “by the seat of your pants”?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I outline, again in a separate computer file, and then allow myself to change my mind as things come to while I’m writing. I modify the outline as I grow the chapters. Sometimes my characters talk to me on my long walks, or plot twists come out of nowhere when I’m doing something else. I’ve learning to respect the “percolating” process, realizing a part of my mind is still working even when I’m not writing. Once I even changed who the villain was 2/3 of the way through the novel because it resulted in a better story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Which do you consider more important, plot or character?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Character, by a short lead. I have to like the characters, even the villain, enough to keep reading <i>any</i> book. The plot has to be compelling enough to engage the mind, but characters must come across as real people with strengths and flaws and fascinating pasts that help explain the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a writer and what inspires you and keeps you motivated?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I still teach part-time, and I have other interests besides writing, especially painting. Sometimes the two interests feed each other; when I get stuck in writing, painting releases another kind of creativity. My biggest challenge is making my story long enough for a traditional mystery novel—I am crippled by years of writing dense (short) academic articles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Do you have a “How I got my agent” story you want to share?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I’ve never had an agent (not for lack of trying!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What are you working on now and what are your future writing plans?</span></b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I am drafting my third Flora Garibaldi novel, <i>The Botticelli Caper</i>, a mystery centered around art forgery and the Uffizi Gallery’s long renovation project. I suspect I will write more short stories and novellas in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What is a typical workday for you and how many hours a day (or week) do you devote to writing?</span></b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">About ten hours per week. I’m always working on something, even if it’s just a blog<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If you could take only three books with you for a year-long writing retreat in a gorgeous setting with no library, which three would you take?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I’d never let myself be caught without a real library! A Complete Works of Shakespeare, a fat world mythology, and a comprehensive poetry anthology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What advice do you have to offer to an aspiring author?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Keep writing, even if it’s just a blog or a journal, because that keeps your writing and thinking muscles exercised. Try different forms: non-fiction, fiction, poetry…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Camping illegally on Masada (Israel) when I was 18.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What question do you wish interviewers would ask? (And what’s the answer?)</span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Why</span></i><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> do I write? Answer: to create the kind of books I like to read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <b>Where can we learn more about you and your books?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Website: </span><a href="http://www.sarahwisseman.com/" style="color: #d3ad7b; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">www.sarahwisseman.com</span></a></div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-17926232495292171502018-06-30T11:37:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:37:20.509-07:00Those First Two Pages...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few years ago, I attended a conference session in which several authors met with two New York agents. Each author read the first two pages of a work in progress and the agents reacted. I read an early draft of two pages from<span> </span><i>Burnt Siena</i><span> </span>beginning with a loving description of Siena, Italy, and ending with my heroine’s discovery of a body. The criticisms were, “Well, obviously you want us to know you’ve lived in Italy…” and “I don’t like your protagonist.” Not very encouraging, but then those two agents didn't like anything they heard that day. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In my writing process, I often write a first scene and junk it later, realizing that the real story starts later, or that the first draft sets the scene or introduces the plot too slowly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So with<span> </span><i>Catacomb</i>, I discarded a scary preface I really liked, deciding it belonged later in the book. Instead, I began the story in the middle of an interaction between Flora Garibaldi and her policeman boyfriend:<span> </span><br /><br /><b>It was a fine day for an argument</b>.<br /><b>“You did what?” Flora yelped.<br />“I called your boss and got you some time off,” said Vittorio Bernini.<br />“Why on earth? And who are you to jeopardize my new job? Why, you interfering so-and-so!” She refrained from calling him a bastard as the blood in her veins heated up.<span> </span><br />“Calm down,<span> </span><i>cara</i>.” Vittorio stopped and put his hands on her shoulders, holding her steady in one place. “There’s a good explanation.”<br />Flora, normally susceptible to the warmth of his hazel eyes, fidgeted under his hands and glared at him. “So explain. And it had better be good.”<br />He took her arm. “We can’t talk here.” They were in the middle of a piazza in Trastevere, the old part of Rome “across the Tiber.” He steered her to a café with spindly metal tables outside, choosing one at the back where other conversations would muffle their own. “Espresso for you?”</b><br /><b>“Make it a macchiato.” She preferred strong Italian coffee with a little swirl of milk.<br />Flora Garibaldi drew out a chair and sat, looping her purse around one knee. The soft air of late April wafted around her, lowering her internal temperature. Maybe she wouldn’t boil over--yet. Vittorio had just done what he always accused her of doing, acting first and not thinking about other peoples’ reactions until it was too late. Now she was on the receiving end, and she didn’t like it.<span> </span></b><br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGL2mJlNBT7FYaLJ9-qEw_neAVe5zzCix9Dzo3VVmmJ92wfF6md5JaNsmORSFpeCm7AwB4G-f3dVD_gHxJRi4NPye-rbWlOFOvhGEN_5ynjcp3Som6fLFmvsobbUA9Z4ayW8kdU-QvLno/s1600/Catacomb-WEBlg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d3ad7b; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="384" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGL2mJlNBT7FYaLJ9-qEw_neAVe5zzCix9Dzo3VVmmJ92wfF6md5JaNsmORSFpeCm7AwB4G-f3dVD_gHxJRi4NPye-rbWlOFOvhGEN_5ynjcp3Som6fLFmvsobbUA9Z4ayW8kdU-QvLno/s320/Catacomb-WEBlg.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="213" /></a><br /><div>
<br />Thus I introduce the two main characters and an ongoing conflict between them, namely Vittorio’s tendency to let the demands of his Carabinieri job override his personal relationships. Because these are my heroes and I want readers to empathize with both of them, I also mention one of Flora’s faults—her habit of rushing into things that has put her in danger in the past.<br /><br />I can’t resist describing the luscious Italian setting—and I think most readers want to know where they are—so I insert a short paragraph while Flora waits for her drink:<br /><br /><b>As she waited for him to fetch their coffees, she decided that despite the occasional clashes of personality and inherited expectations, their first few months together as a couple had been quite satisfactory. They’d found a small but charming apartment, a third-floor walk-up with a tiny balcony, in Trastevere. Flora loved the area, with its cobbled streets and sunset colors on the painted stucco buildings: burnt orange, pale red, salmon, and gold. The non-existent grid plan of Rome no longer bothered her. Now, she reveled in the odd, triangular piazzas where she least expected them, the meandering streets, and the quiet, flower-filled corners of residential neighborhoods. She’d even adopted the Italian custom of putting out leftover dishes of pasta for the stray cats, some of the thousands of cats who weren’t living in the ruins of the Colosseum but stalked the unwary small rodents in every corner of Rome.</b><br /><br />This sets the stage for the entire book, which takes place in modern Rome both above and below ground. The premise: Flora and her policeman boyfriend search for a cache of Nazi-looted art that the Monuments Men missed.<br /><br />My next challenge is how to convey information about stolen art, Nazi hideaways, and the Monuments Men without doing an “information dump” and boring the reader.<br /><br />I decide to parcel out some of the necessary facts in a brief conversation between the two protagonists while including a humanizing detail: Flora’s greed for sweets. Other information will be woven in later, in discussions between policemen and the international group of scholars and specialists convened by Vittorio and Flora to help with the search.<br /><br />The key: weave the technical details into the plot while making the reader greedy for more information. Example: is a short story by Michigan and Chicago writer<span> </span><a href="http://barbaradamato.com/" style="color: #d3ad7b; text-decoration: none;">Barbara D’Amato</a>. In<span> </span><b>“Of Course You Know Chocolate is a Vegetable,”</b><span> </span>the reader gobbles up information about the chemistry of chocolate, coffee, and a certain medication to solve the death of a particularly despicable literary critic. Highly recommended reading!</div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-24050480511240066352018-06-30T11:35:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:35:30.974-07:00From Day Job to Mystery Writer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By day, I’m an archaeologist at the University of Illinois. At night and on weekends, I morph into a mystery writer. My series is the Lisa Donahue Archaeological Mysteries, and my protagonist is a lot like me. She’s a museum curator trained in Classical and Near Eastern archaeology, she spent a junior year in Israel, and she has a daughter, a cat, and a medical husband (not necessarily in that order!).<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
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So how does one go from archaeology to murder? I grew up in a household full of moldering old paperback mysteries (mostly Golden Age British novels), and my parents liked to read aloud to us from Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles and the like. Then I got a job in a dusty old attic museum where broken windows allowed pigeons to fly in and out. While working on an interdisciplinary mummy project, I realized that my workplace was the perfect setting for murder.<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
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Thus my first novel, “Bound for Eternity,” was born. In this story, Lisa discovers that an Egyptian mummy holds the secrets to two murders in her Boston Museum. (My old museum was moved from Illinois to Boston to protect the innocent). </div>
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The prequel, “The Dead Sea Codex,” allowed Lisa to revisit Israel, hook up with an old boyfriend, and crisscross the desert looking for an ancient manuscript before Christian fanatics destroy it. Book 3 in the series, “The Fall of Augustus,” takes Lisa back to her museum at a time when the staff is supposed to move enormous plaster statues of Roman emperors and Greek gods down through an old elevator shaft. Sounds dangerous, right? Some of my colleagues actually did this at Illinois without misadventure, but naturally I changed the facts in my mystery so I could have the vicarious thrill of killing off two museum directors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Book 4, “The House of the Sphinx,” takes a new direction. Lisa and her radiologist husband, James, take a delayed honeymoon in Egypt, where they stumble upon a plot to infect Western tourists with smallpox. I like to say that this plot (instead of another archaeological caper) is my husband’s fault, and that he’s a ghoul. Actually, Charlie’s a retired pathologist, and a great source of information on all things medical. He used to work for the Centers for Disease Control, and pointed me to their website. There I found a public, fully detailed plan for dealing with a modern smallpox epidemic. Scary stuff. While I Googled bioweapons and tried to figure out how to weaponize smallpox virus, the thought did cross my mind that someone out there might be watching my Internet use…fortunately, no one showed up on my doorstep.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">I see many similarities between mystery writing and my “day job.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">Archaeology is like a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing; constructing a mystery is like solving a jigsaw puzzle, but all the pieces should be there and should fit at the end. Archaeologists deal with layers (stratigraphy), with the stuff on top being the most recent and the stuff deep down being the oldest. Similarly, the visible story in a mystery is the top layer (what the writer wants you to see), and the deeper layers hold the motives, the clues, and the detailed plot that is gradually revealed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of us mine our day jobs to write stories. <span style="font-size: 14pt;">How do you connect your day job with mystery writing or reading?</span></span></div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-35823201676481817092018-06-30T11:34:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:34:21.271-07:00How to Self-edit a short story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Self-editing is hard, no two ways about it. I remember a workshop led by Nancy Pickard years ago that I found especially useful. She called her method CASTS (Conflict, Action, Senses, Turn, and Surprise) and encouraged all of us to evaluate each scene or chapter using these five criteria. The trickiest for us to understand was the difference between "turn" and "surprise." If memory serves me, a "turn" could be a shift in mood for the protagonist/narrator, e.g. start the scene excited and end up hopeless. "Surprise" could be an "aha" moment for either the protagonist <i>or</i> the reader, as in, "I never thought of that!"</div>
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I recently sent in a short story for an anthology contest that required intense self-editing. As I accepted feedback from friends and colleagues, I had to sort out what to incorporate and what to discard (my rule is: if two or more critics say something needs fixing, pay attention).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here are some of the guidelines I developed. All of these apply to novels too, but were especially helpful to me as I refined my short story and tried to make every word count.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>What is the story logic? Does it work for readers? Review major plot points and how they unfold.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I made an outline and read it out loud to myself. Sometimes the logic is obvious to me, but not to my readers because I have left out some portion of my reasoning.</div>
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<b>Where are the red herrings? Are they inserted in the best possible way?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I want some misdirection, but not too much. There’s less space in a short story, and you have to balance misdirection with keeping up the pace of the story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Follow each character: How do you reveal character? Is each character distinct, and do they interact with others consistently</b>?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>One of my characters was a bit wooden, so I fixed that by adding phrases or action words as dialogue tags.</div>
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<b>Do you have the right balance between dialogue and description?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This was especially difficult for me since I discovered halfway through that I was writing my first police procedural, with crucial dialogue between two detectives! I added a little more description.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Is there tension on each page? How is it revealed?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I made my characters argue with each other, disagreeing on how to proceed. I increased their physical discomfort as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Is there a twist at the end?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This is crucial, since most short stories want an “aha!” moment at the end.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I find critique groups immensely valuable; the members are readers as much as they are fellow writers. Although I attend one group that has 15-20 participants, I prefer a much smaller group so we can each read longer sections and receive more detailed feedback.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Finally, here's a great quote:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns." </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> (P.L. Travers, creator of the "Mary Poppins" series) </span></div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-32052575751206371352018-06-30T11:32:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:32:27.983-07:00Travel the Palaeolithic (published first in 2017)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Our European trip this fall was a National Geographic “Human Origins” tour of Paleolithic caves in southwestern France and northern Spain. It was spectacular. We visited two or more caves per day, with breaks in medieval villages, an outdoor museum for flint-knapping and a “paleo” lunch (leaf-wrapped salmon cooked in a pit oven), and gorgeous archaeological museums.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve written before about how painting and writing, my two favorite activities, feed each other. When I have writer’s block, I take a painting break; when the painting is stalled, I return to writing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This trip provided plenty of inspiration for future stories and imitation rock paintings. My jaw dropped at least once a day, viewing cave paintings that were clearly planned out over stretches of thirty feet or more. The artists used multiple techniques: engraving, sketching with chunks of charcoal, depositing ground pigment (iron oxide, manganese) with blowpipes or daubers, painting with homemade brushes. </div>
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Twenty thousand years ago, the painters studied walls to take advantage of natural curves in the rock to design the backs and bellies of bison and reindeer. They used shading to imply depth, and suggested movement of animals by deliberately leaving gaps between the top of some legs and the bodies of their beasts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The results are stunning, no less than the natural cave formations around the paintings. Stalactites and stalagmites (my husband reminded me of the jingle “the tights go down, the mites climb up” to help remember which is which), columns, and organ pipes greet you around every twisty, slippery corner. Yes, organ pipes that can be played, and music has been written for cave formations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The smaller French caves were never lived in (too dangerous to light fires with poor air circulation) but were clearly used as places of ritual and worship: think churches, not dwellings. However, one huge cave shelter was once a Paleolithic clothing factory and trading center; archaeologists found tools, bone and shell beads, and other evidence of industry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Dordogne region of southwest France is a beautiful country, packed with cave sites and wineries. If you want a virtual visit without suffering an overnight flight, try Martin Walker’s Chief of Police Bruno <a href="http://www.brunochiefofpolice.com/" style="color: #d3ad7b; text-decoration-line: none;">series</a> set in that very region. Bruno is a war veteran, gourmet cook, and animal owner as well as a country policeman. The author alternates action scenes with descriptions of incredible meals, grape-stomping, truffle-hunting, and fierce games of rugby.</div>
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The reason Walker's books are so good is that he lives in the area he writes about at least half of every year. <i>Vive La France</i>!</div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-85932381557185641572018-06-30T11:28:00.001-07:002018-06-30T11:28:28.397-07:00A Pecha Kucha experience (first published 2017)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Recently I was asked to speak at a local Pecha Kucha, a Japanese-inspired public forum for artists and writers. Each speaker talks about her passion for exactly 6 minutes, 40 seconds, with slides advancing every 20 seconds. You have to plan carefully; once the slides start, there’s no pausing or going back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">My topic is “Toxic Brews in 1920s Illinois,” or a seriously condensed version of the research I did several years ago for my local mystery, <i><a href="http://www.sarahwisseman.com/more-novels.html">The Bootlegger’s Nephew</a></i>. In this mystery, my physician protagonist can’t figure out whether his friend was poisoned deliberately or just consumed a mixture of bad booze, prescription medicine, and homemade tonics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">His flapper daughter, Anna, helps him investigate, and together they trap a murderer and shut down a local gang of bootleggers. This story was supposed to be about 1920s archaeology, when it was a still a just a gentleman’s hobby. But the fascinating story of Prohibition took over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The novel has several themes: the dangers of consuming liquor made from toxic substances (industrial-grade alcohol, kerosene, or embalming fluid) or heating corn mash in lead-lined radiators; the difficulties of practicing medicine before the advent of antibiotics; and the enhanced freedoms of young women during Prohibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The research was fascinating. Not only were there multiple ways to make and transport illegal booze, there were all kinds of “concealed carry.” Women fashioned deep pockets in their slinky dresses and long coats for flasks of illicit booze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Our local newspaper, then called the Champaign Daily, reported on a raid in my hometown: “There were bottles of liquor hidden inside boxing gloves and stuffed inside a phonograph. There was wood alcohol, Jamaican ginger, liquor made from kerosene and furniture polish, booze that would make a rabbit expectorate in a bulldog’s face, squirrel whiskey that would make a man climb a tree.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I stole another tidbit from a true account of Prohibition in Cincinnati: There was an enterprising family who ran a speak-easy in their home. Their under-age son dispensed liquor through tubes from the second floor. When there was a raid, he just threw a rug over the floor tubes and spread out his homework.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Revisiting this fascinating research led me to publish a <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/747719">short story</a> that features the flapper daughter, Anna Junker, and her boyfriend Ben:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The result of all this activity made me appreciate east central Illinois in a whole new way. Now, when I travel around downtown, I notice the older buildings that erected before my stories took place. And I remember that one local establishment, once the store where I purchased my son’s soccer shoes, had a speakeasy on the second floor in the 1920s. It boasted a hidden stairway down to the street so patrons could escape quickly when federal agents showed up. On the same block, there was an underground steam tunnel used to exit a bootlegger’s distillery during raids. I asked around town if I could visit this tunnel—alas, it was closed down years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-89536242736271343712018-06-30T11:27:00.000-07:002018-06-30T11:27:19.438-07:00A Murderous Weekend (first published 2017)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had the great pleasure of attending our regional mystery conference, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Magna-cum-Murder-1384614645099585/?hc_location=ufi">Magna cum Murder</a>, in Indianapolis last weekend. This wonderful con started as a house party for writers and fans, held in a small hotel in Muncie, Indiana over twenty years ago.<br />
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Although the conference has moved venues twice, once to a convention hall in Muncie (rather impersonal and far from hotels) and second to the Columbia Club (a comfortable, atmospheric private club building in Indy).<br />
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Magna remains a friendly and warm conference, both for newbies and returning attendees. It attracts many readers, who enjoy having informal opportunities to talk with authors. The authors' experiences are enriched by these readers, and new friendships form every year. Even the hotel staff enjoys the conference: they comment on how strange it is hearing people talk about murder in the elevators.<br />
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The panels deal with both writing mechanics (e-publishing, marketing) and author experiences, such as showing up at a bookstore for a signing and discovering no advance publicity means only three people show up. This seems to have happened to every author at least once (moral: do your own publicity for every event, and that includes online events!).<br />
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I always come home with some new insight from both the panels I attend and the ones I am on. This time, it was how different authors revise their manuscripts and get them ready to submit. The best advice: while critique groups can be helpful, beta readers are better. A beta reader is a trusted friend, usually also a writer, who can evaluate a manuscript frankly and tell you where the weaknesses are. In my case, it's usually sections that are not developed enough. A character may not react as fully as she could to a sudden change in circumstances or the odd behavior of a colleague. Or the dialogue falls short, leaving too many questions in the reader's mind.<br />
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Finally, writing is a solitary pursuit. Attending a good conference is like a breath of fresh air and an affirmation of the writing life. Yes, there are others out there who live in their heads and plot murders while cooking dinner. Best of all, the weekend reminds me that many people still love reading and talking about good stories.</div>
Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285796033691178617.post-83644412268678951752018-06-30T11:16:00.002-07:002018-06-30T11:22:46.286-07:00Travel Reflections (first published in 2016)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I recently returned from an intense, marvelous trip to Iceland and the countries around the Baltic. Result: my body is tired and my brain is scrambled. Not quite sure what time zone I'm in, or what I'm supposed to be doing yet. But, as my husband says, "it's good to <i>have </i>traveled," and it certainly shakes up the routine.<br />
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Iceland was amazing: spectacular geology and bizarre landscapes, from a continental divide (where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet) to geysers reminiscent of Yellowstone and the eerie Blue Lagoon. I particularly loved the Lagoon: where strangers meet, coming out of the steam, with white clay masks (good for the skin!) and the hot, geothermal water is the perfect cure for jet lag.<br />
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Scandinavia is stunning in all its varied cityscapes, gorgeous fjords, and way of living. I asked lots of questions about health care, and the response from the locals was uniformly positive: we don't mind paying such high taxes when we get cradle-to-grave care and free university attendance.<br />
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Bergen, Norway (on a rainy day)<br />
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The trip's effect on me is something that is still being sorted out, on many levels. I understand now why Scandinavian mysteries are so dark and the settings gray--that's really how it is, even in high summer, with frequent rain and low clouds. No wonder people celebrate the return of the sun near the Arctic Circle!<br />
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As for cruise travel, and ocean boat is a great way to visit multiple ports with a companion who has walking issues, but it's too much, too fast. Today, Estonia and tomorrow, St. Petersburg--no, wait, the ship can't leave port because the wind is holding the boat against the pier and not even a big tug can shift it! And when we finally arrived in the great Russian port after a day's delay, the dramatic contrast between the original grand palaces and wide boulevards with leftover Communist apartment blocks was decidedly creepy. So were the multiple passport checks: twice every time you got on or off the boat, and no straying from the tour group allowed unless you'd purchased a very expensive Russian visa. Sayings that stuck in my mind, "You don't want to be stopped in Russia without papers," (still!!) and "Russians dress like cabbages," (meaning layers). And, "there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."<br />
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St. Petersburg apartment blocks<br />
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After I sort out my many and mixed impressions, I'll be able to write again. Next up: the third mystery, "The Botticelli Caper," set in Italy, and a research trip with my daughter to Florence! That trip will be "slow" travel: lots of time in one place, with frequent pauses for sitting in cafes and inhaling Italian food:)<br />
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Sarah Wissemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375429913537378168noreply@blogger.com0