inspired by Ennis

Those Paul Ennis interviews inspired me, qua Associate Vice Provost for Research, to revamp the AUC Faculty Bulletin to contain an interview with a faculty member in each issue. Vice Provost Ali Hadi agreed with the plan, and here we are about to publish the first one. Thanks, Paul!

In a few days, I’ll post a link to my inaugural interview with SALIMA IKRAM, a star Egyptologist on our faculty who comes originally from Pakistan. I spent much of the morning editing that interview, and concerning the “lists of assorted objects” maneuver, I can promise that I had no stylistic influence on the following answer when I asked what she found while digging in the Kharga Oasis:

“ancient caravan routes, forts, temples, early churches, farmhouses, pigeon towers, elaborate underground aqueducts, small settlements, tombs, pharaonic inscriptions, prehistoric settlements, and a plethora of rock art”

(These finds were from the Roman Period, it turns out.)

Another interesting thing for me about the interview was trying to find out how Professor Ikram can write so much about the ancient Egyptian diet. Apparently they can do isotopic analysis of bones and figure out what they ate in that way. And there are some other methods.

Everyone loves Egyptology, right? It’s one of the darlings of the academic party.