Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, Ana TAvares, Ancient Egypt Research Associates, archaeology, Brad Feinknopf, Dr. Mark Lehner, Lost City, Lost Egypt, pyramid
It’s been an amazing summer with “Lost Egypt” at COSI. There were several particularly memorable experiences for me.
- After years of looking at a small table-top paper scale model of the exhibit, it was incredible to walk into the gallery for the first time and see the real exhibits and murals and walls. Seeing the large scale murals of Egypt, as well as Brad Feinknopf’s photos in the hallway, reminded me of our trip to Egypt.
- Watching visitors at our member event with archaeologists Dr. Mark Lehner and Ana Tavares from Ancient Egypt Research Associates, and Dr. Jonathan Elias from the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, was so great. I got to introduce two girls who want to become archaeologists to Ana as they walked through the exhibit!
- I saw hundreds of people climb on the camel, build a pyramid, search out the archaeological clues from the Lost City site, move a pyramid block, discover artifacts, watch a show about the afterlife, come face to face with a mummy, explore tomb art, and study the forensic science behind mummies. I really hope we managed to capture some of the excitement and sense of wonder that is the science of archaeology, and share it with our visitors.
- We performed formal evaluations, received written comments, and overheard lots of conversations about “Lost Egypt”. We really value all the comments from visitors and colleagues – everything that was said about what you liked and didn’t like, what you found compelling, beautiful, or boring, is so useful in planning our future exhibits. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Now we’re preparing to close “Lost Egypt”. I feel a bit like I’m sending my kid off on her first day of school. “Lost Egypt”is heading out into the world to tour the U.S. for the next several years. It was the most wonderful, exhausting, amazing and challenging work project I’ve ever had. I’m so grateful for the help of Josh, Carli, Jenn and all the others at COSI who helped turn the idea into reality. And the Science Museum of Minnesota team who brought it to life was incredible – I miss working with all of you, and hope we can head off to Jordan or Greece or Mexico for the next adventure some day soon! It’s been a privilege to work on Lost Egypt, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
An interview from the top of the world.
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Cincinnati Museum Center, final week, Labor Day, Lost Egypt
This is the final week of the Lost Egypt exhibit. It’s hard to believe that after a 5-year development process, our 3 months of hosting the exhibit is already coming to an end. What a journey it’s been. The Cincinnati Museum Center has just announced that they will host the exhibit this fall, so our team of experts will be packing up the exhibit after Labor Day, and shipping her down to Cincinnati. At least those of us close to the project can drive south 90 minutes to visit! If you haven’t been yet, I would definitely recommend you take advantage of this last week that the exhibit is open, and come down to COSI – the Labor Day deadline is looming…
3D Pottery Puzzle
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Aaron Dysart, Association of Science Technology Centers, ASTC, Blue Rhino, camel, COSI, Dan Miller, Dave Leak, Dick Leerhoff, Jeff Nelson, Jim Burt, Lost Egypt, Nikkia Vredenburg, Philadelphia, Ryan Dahl, Sarah, science museum of minnesota, Tim Quady
Author: Kate
Our camel, Sarah, is finished! She will be joining us at the Association of Science-Technology Centers conference in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks before coming to live at COSI until Lost Egypt opens. I’m hoping I can get a luggage strap and some wheels and pull her through the Philadelphia airport as my carry-on item (although I’m guessing she won’t fit under the seat in front of me…).
We want to give a huge thank you to the Blue Rhino Studio folks who created our delightful dromedary – Jim Burt (left) is the main sculptor at Blue Rhino Studio – he sculpted Sarah. Also shown are Jeff Nelson, Aaron Dysart, Nikkia Vredenburg and Ryan Dahl. Not pictured are Dave Leak and Tim Quady. We all enjoyed working with them, checking on Sarah’s progress, and visiting Blue Rhino Studio!
We’re also grateful to our partners at the Science Museum of Minnesota who worked on Sarah, including Dan Miller and Dick Leerhoff, who are pictured here.
Thank you!
Filed under: Partnerships | Tags: American Electric Power, COSI, Einstein, Extreme Screen, Lost Egypt, Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, Sesame Street presents: The Body
We are thrilled to share that Lost Egypt officially has its first sponsor! American Electric Power, a long-time friend and supporter of COSI, recently agreed to be the Presenting Sponsor of Lost Egypt.
American Electric Power’s sponsorship supports COSI’s annual fund, which will enable COSI to provide COSI guests, members, and donors of all ages dozens of special events and programs to complement the Lost Egypt exhibition, including:
- Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs film on COSI’s 7-Story Extreme Screen
- Member and Donor Lost Egypt preview events
- Special events or lectures featuring archaeological or ancient Egypt experts
- Educational programs like camps and workshops for students of all ages
Over the past 18 years, American Electric Power has remained one of COSI’s greatest supporters and closest friends. American Electric Power’s sponsorship of popular exhibitions like Einstein (spring of 2007) and Sesame Street Presents: The Body (open October 4, 2008 to January 4, 2009) makes it possible to bring unique, quality educational experiences to our community that create meaningful, lasting memories for all COSI visitors, both young and old.
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Blue Rhino Studios, camel, COSI, Dan Miller, Dick Leerhoff, Egypt, Lost Egypt, saddle, Sarah, science museum of minnesota, SMM
Author: Kate
Our camel (who we’ve nicknamed Sarah) is almost finished! A couple of our Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) partners headed to Blue Rhino Studios to see the progress. To see if the camel is going to hold up as thousands of kids climb on it, we have to test it (that’s the fun part!), so here’s the team at Blue Rhino, as well as Dan Miller and Dick Leerhoff from SMM hard at work!
Blue Rhino Testers
Dan Miller and Camel
Dick Leerhoff and Camel
Since last time, the eyes, ears, and teeth have been added, and the camel has been painted.
Camel Face
Camel Face
Sarah’s hump is pretty tall, and we’ve had to think about how people will climb into the saddle. We designed the saddle similar to real ones on camels, and we’ll be adding some decoration like blankets to soften it up. We have added a stirrup as well to help the riders.
Complete Camel
It’s been amazing seeing Sarah emerge from a block of foam, being sculpted into a camel that looks just like the ones we saw in Egypt!
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: COSI, hieroglyphics, Karnak, Lost Egypt, Luxor, stone, temple complex, tombs
Author: Kate
This is one of the rooms that will be in the Lost Egypt exhibit – an area talking about tombs, artwork and hieroglyphics.
Hieroglyphic Room 1
When the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and tombs, they used solid materials like limestone and granite. On the Lost Egypt project, we need materials that are going to be durable (although not quite as durable as the Pyramids!) to last for the entire 6+ year tour of the exhibition, as it travels around the U.S., but also lightweight and easy to assemble at each new location. Wood panels that fit together using camlocks are a good solution. Showing up at the next venue with semi trucks filled with limestone ready for assembly would be a bit challenging….where are those pyramid builders when you need them?
Hieroglyphic Room 2
Hieroglyphic Room 3
We modeled the front façade of this room after the Karnak and Luxor temple complexes we saw in Luxor, Egypt. Transforming the simple wood structures into something that looks like stone is going to take some work, and involve the help of our Science Museum of Minnesota partners and scenic painters.
Temple Complex
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Blue Rhino Studios, camel, clay, COSI, Lost Egypt, model, sculpting
Author: Josh
The camel is moving forward! We approved the initial design, and now the folks at Blue Rhino Studios are working on blowing him up to full size. And full size is, well, full size. Camels are big!
Camel Prototype
The designers sent us this maquette of the camel. We had already looked at an earlier model and made a few suggestions (like raising her head up more, having her eyes open, and making her “smile”) that, as you can see, they changed on this model. Since we approved the model, they moved into the next phase, which is making the actual camel that we’ll use in the exhibit.
Rough Camel
As you can see, they started with a big lump of clay. You can see how the outline of the camel is there in the shape. You can also get a feel for how big she’s going to be—look at the guy who’s working on her!
Sculpted Camel
Next, they start adding details and refining some of her features. Features like her ears and tail are added later; you can see the wire that they’ll be forming her ears around. As Blue Rhino keeps moving forward, we’ll keep you posted. I can’t wait to see her when she gets done!
Filed under: The Big Picture | Tags: archaeology, COSI, Lost Egypt, Sarah Parcak, sattelite image
Another of the archaeologists whom we have interviewed for the exhibit is Sarah Parcak. She has been doing some really cool work on finding sites using satellite imagery, and she’s been called the first person to use this imagery to find new sites in Egypt.
Dr. Parcak works at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. It’s a little odd to think of an archaeologist doing a lot of “field work” at a computer station, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. One of the tricky things about archaeology is that the people who practice it are often looking for things that are hidden, buried underground for long periods of time (have you ever seen the drawings Napoleon’s team did of the Sphinx buried up to its neck in sand?). Archaeologists used to (and sometimes still do) rely on logic, perseverance, and luck when looking for new sites. They would dig in places where they had deduced that a site should be based upon the available evidence (like the team that discovered the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders), or they would jump on chance discoveries made by the local human or even animal population (like the donkey who accidentally stepped into the graves now known as The Valley of the Golden Mummies). But because of the satellite imaging that is now being done by Dr. Parcak and others, archaeologists are better able to determine exactly where to dig before ever even setting foot there.
Her tools range from old still images from spy satellites to cutting-edge digital scanning filters that can detect differences in the water content of soil. She even uses Google Earth to search known sites from above and look for previously unknown features. To date, Dr. Parcak has discovered more than 150 previously unknown sites, with the promise of many, many more; she estimates that only about 0.01 percent of ancient Egypt has been uncovered!
Try it yourself! In Google Earth, visit Amarna, a vast ancient site and the capitol of Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten (27°39’24”N, 30°54’22”E). See if you can tell the difference between the modern town and what’s buried just to the south of it!
We just heard some fascinating new news out of Egypt. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, recently announced that the remains of a previously unknown pyramid have been found in Saqqara (the site of Djoser’s Step Pyramid, among other sites). This is a story that has all the trappings of Egyptian archaeology.
First, when I said “previously unknown,” that isn’t entirely true. The foundations of the pyramid were first described in modern history by a German archaeologist named Karl Richard Lepsius in 1842. Unfortunately, though, the site became buried under sand and was considered lost until this announcement of its rediscovery. This is common in Egypt. Sometimes sand and debris from one dig is unknowingly moved on top of another site, through no fault on the part of the archaeologists—there’s just no way of knowing there’s something underneath of you. Other times the desert simply swallows the site, even if it has been uncovered in modern times. Let’s face it—there’s a lot of sand that can cover things up in a desert!
Second, the really, really old stuff once again has a way of superseding the stuff that’s just really old. The team who disclosed the pyramid discovery also announced the discovery of part of a ceremonial procession road used by ancient Egyptian priests over 2200 years ago. 2200 years ago! That’s before the time of the Roman Empire, the Islamic Golden Age, Mesoamerican empires such as the Mayans and Aztecs, and many other ancient cultures. Problem is, this road is predated by the pyramid by another 2200 years. That’s right—at the time this newly discovered road was built, our “newly discovered” headless pyramid was already more than 2000 years old. It has been really interesting hearing some of our project advisers discuss how the Late Period of Egyptian history is often found uninteresting simply because it feels “too new,” which is a shame because the Late Period has some fascinating history connected to it.
Finally, we have a little controversy. The “newly discovered” (sorry, can’t help but keep up the quotes on that) pyramid has not yet yielded any cartouches (i.e. names of pharaohs) at the site. Because we can’t carbon date stone, this means that archaeologists have to compare the pyramid’s features to the features of other pyramids in order to figure out how old it is and for whom it was built. While most scholars seem to agree that it was built for Menkauhor, a Fifth Dynasty pharaoh, others are arguing that it could belong to a Tenth or Twelfth Dynasty pharaoh, a discrepancy of more than 600 years. For me, this is where some of the excitement of archaeology comes across. We can never know with absolute certainty that our conclusions about the past are correct, mostly because, well, it’s the past (I usually can’t recall what happened last week with absolute clarity, and I was there). The best archaeologists can do is come up with stronger evidence to prove their point. The strongest evidence comes out on top, at least until someone comes up with stronger contrary evidence. As with most things in life, the more you know, the better equipped you are to prove your point. Not a bad lesson for a 4400 year old incomplete pyramid.
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: blog, camel, COSI, Lost Egypt, prototype, Saqqara
Author: Kate Storm
We’re working on my favorite exhibit components for Lost Egypt – a life-sized camel! Our project partners on the exhibition, The Science Museum of Minnesota, found an amazing company, Blue Rhino Studios – http://www.rhinocentral.com/profile.html – to design and build a camel for us.
We’ve been looking at materials, size, scale, and all the other issues that go into designing a large one-humped camel, aka “Camelus dromedarius,” if you like to know the Latin genus and species. One-humped camels are called dromedaries, and are found in North Africa and the Near East. Two-humped camels are called bactrians or “Camelus bactrianus,” and are typically found in central Asia. We only saw the dromedaries in Egypt, probably because it’s in North Africa.
While camels aren’t really used much for transportation in Egypt today, you can still see them at the Giza Plateau and at Saqqara. We saw the camel below, which gave rides to tourists. I loved the colorful halter, although the picture really can’t capture the smell of a camel in the hot sun, which is definitely something…memorable. See the long eyelashes? They’re great for protecting the camel’s eyes from the desert sand.
In Saqqara, the guards rode camels, so the gear was less gaudy and more utilitarian. We needed to get photo references for Blue Rhino while we were in Egypt, since it’s challenging to figure out exactly what a camel looks like lying down. Their legs fold in on themselves like origami – very strange! So we asked the guards if we could take pictures of their guard camel. They laughed when they noticed us taking this photo of the back end.
Blue Rhino has produced lots of other animals as well – check out the detail on the moose, bobcat, and other animals on their website. The artists at their studio have designed a small clay model, called a maquette, which you can see below.
A maquette is a small scale model which is useful to test your concepts, without the expense of producing a full-sized version. This prototype is studied by the whole design team, and changes are made to it. We’ve already made several changes to our camel based on the maquette, including the way the head is turned and the angle of the neck. The human being in the model is scaled to represent someone 6’ tall, just to give an idea of the camel’s size. I can’t wait to see this when it’s done!
Filed under: Construction News, Trip to Egypt | Tags: forensics, interview, Lost Egypt, mummy, photos, science museum of minnesota, trip, video
Author: Josh
Well, we’ve been back stateside for almost two weeks now, and I feel I can safely say that I’m no longer jetlagged. Well, at least no more than usual.
We’re busy downloading all of the information and images that we picked up on this trip, sharing with our team here and our partners at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Of course, that’s going to take a minute – Brad shot over 3,000 photos during the course of the trip, and Cindy recorded over 15 hours of video! That’s a lot of post-production work! What we’ve looked at so far has been absolutely beautiful. Be sure to check out Carli’s link to Brad’s images – pretty impressive stuff.
And we aren’t even done with the interviews! We’ll be meeting with forensic anthropologist Dr. Tosha Dupras in early April to discuss forensics and mummies. Later that month we’ll travel to Birmingham, Alabama, to meet with Dr. Sarah Parcak, who’s doing some incredible work using satellite imagery to identify new archaeological sites in Egypt. And later this summer, we’ll meet with Dr. Janice Kamrin, an expert in Egyptian hieroglyphs who works for the Supreme Council of Antiquities. And, of course, we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to speak with Dr. Zahi Hawass…
We’ll keep updating the blog to provide the latest “behind-the-scenes” view of the making of “Lost Egypt.” There’s still plenty of excitement yet to come.
Filed under: Trip to Egypt | Tags: Cairo, COSI, Egypt, exhibit, Giza, interview, Lost City, Lost Egypt, Mark Lehner
Author: Josh
Sorry for our missing entries from yesterday-we stole some moments in the afternoon for some much-needed rest, sleep that was pretty much negated by another late-night flight (this time, back to Cairo) followed by another 5 am alarm clock bell. But please don’t regard this as a complaint. While we have certainly been burning the candle at both ends, there is no doubt in my mind that this trip has been a wild success.
After spending our time yesterday refining the rest of our itinerary, rewriting some interviews, and reviewing our remaining shots, we had the chance to film some more incredible interviews today. As Carli mentioned, we met with Dr. Mark Lehner, who was absolutely amazing.
After having spent so much time the past few months reading about Mark’s work, the opportunity to sit down with this remarkable scientist was one of the high water marks of my professional career. Hearing him speak so passionately and eloquently about archaeology in general and Giza specifically, and visualizing the way his words melded beautifully with our exhibit…well, words fail to describe.
But in addition to meeting with Mark, we had the pleasure of meeting with some of the members of his team at the Giza site. We spoke with Mary Anne Murray, an archaeobotanist, Anna Wodlinska, a ceramicist, and Camilla Mazzucato, a GIS specialist. Each of these women provided us with more wonderful insight into their jobs at the Lost City and how what they do is influenced and enhanced by the other members of their team.
It’s been a revelation to me just how wonderful and gracious each and every person whom we’ve interviewed has been thus far. They’ve given freely and happily of their time, in some cases with very late notice, and each and every expert has provided us with more real scientific information that we can place directly into Lost Egypt. I can’t imagine having created this exhibit without their thoughts, expertise, and good will. If any of you are reading this now, again, I thank you.
It’s hard to believe that we will leave this wonderful place in just over a day. Each and every day here brings new discoveries and more breathtaking sites, and our little exhibit has grown infinitely stronger with each passing hour. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to return…well, no time for sentiment now. We’ve another full day tomorrow.
Filed under: Trip to Egypt | Tags: archaeology, balloon, Cairo, Egypt, Giza, interview, Lost Egypt, Luxor, Mark Lehner, ride, science, scientific method
Author: Carli
We’ve been averaging about 5-to-6 hours of sleep per night, and working about 17-hour days. I can barely keep my eyes open, but the incredible adventures continue every day, and I don’t want to miss a single moment. Yesterday, I got on a hot air balloon at 6AM and floated amongst 30 other balloons, watching the sun rise over the Nile, and taking photographs of the sugarcane fields and the Valley of the Kings below. We hopped an evening flight back from Luxor to Cairo, arriving around 2AM to the hotel, and slept until about 5:30AM this morning. We then headed back out to interview team members from the Giza Plateau Project.
My triumphant moment of the day – interviewing Mark Lehner, living legend of the discipline of Egyptology, esteemed archaeologist, and foremost expert on the pyramids. During the interview, we talked about the Giza Mapping Project, his discovery of the Lost City, the interfacing of different archaeological disciplines to complete pictures of ancient daily life, the importance and relevance of studying ancient Egyptian history, and scientific method involved in the process of archaeology.
The final line of questioning relating to scientific method and the proving or disproving of hypotheses brought me to tears. He essentially outlined the entire educational function of the Lost Egypt exhibit in a way that combined science, fantasy, discovery, curiosity, and the desire to seek out truth.
I couldn’t help but picture children at COSI standing in front of a kiosk station listening to Dr. Lehner speak and becoming inspired to take a similar career path. The impact of the project and the interview itself overwhelmed me. I am so proud of the work we have done here, and the product that will result from our efforts.
