An Interview by Melanie E Magdalena
Matthew Woodall has been painting since childhood. It all began with a gift from his mother, the 1963 World Book Encyclopedia set.
“I remember drawing a man from history in one of those books that had a top hat and handlebar mustache that literally shocked my parents. I drew it with an ink pen (no erasing) and it looked just like him with all his facial features.” Today he paints café and street scenes with a “hippie-day” setting as well as portraits of famous musicians and artists he admires.
Viking Unst by PromoteShetland on Flickr.
Yesterday we continued our archaeological sight-seeing tour by going to Corinth! Our professor David excavates there, so he went with us to explain the site. It was also the most beautiful day I’ve experienced in Greece so far. After walking around we all sat outside for a beer and lunch and soaked in the sunshine.
So when you’re doing a lot of one academic thing (in this case - archaeology) things can start to get a little nerdy. My friends and I keep cracking archaeology jokes that we think are hilarious, but other kids in the program who aren’t studying archaeology (a surprisingly large amount) don’t…
Interesting thing I’m reading about today: Joya de Cerén, the “Pompeii of the Americas”
Archaeologists were suddenly quoting lines from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Digging in the Italian village of Valdaro—near the city of Mantua, a setting for the famous Elizabethan tragedy—they uncovered a startling double burial. Dubbed the “Lovers of Valdaro” by the media, the pair were huddled close together, face to face, their arms and legs entwined, seemingly in an eternal embrace.
The burial, which dates to the Neolithic period (5000-4000 B.C.), caused an immediate stir among its discoverers. “I am so thrilled at this find,” says archaeologist Elena Maria Menotti, who led the excavation. “I have been involved in lots of digs all over Italy, but nothing has excited me as much as this. I’ve never been so moved, because this is the discovery of something special.”
Although it is not the only Neolithic burial to contain more than one person, double burials are rare, and the pose and the positioning of this couple are unique. After an initial examination of the bones, experts determined that the man and woman were no more than 20 years old, and both around 5 feet, 2 inches tall.
-archaeology.org
The basilica of Bargala, a town built between the 4th and 6th centuries BCE, near the modern-day town of Štip, Macedonia.
Votive relief of King Ur-Nanshe of Lagash that dates back to 2550–2500 BC. Found in Telloh (ancient city of Girsu). Musée du Louvre, Paris, FRANCE.
Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen
petroglyphs
Interned :) july 2010
Field Museum presents rarely seen ancient remains “unwrapped” through latest technology
Opening the Vaults: Mummies is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the public to view over 20 mummified individuals from Egypt and Peru held in The Field Museum’s extensive collections, including complete humans and animals. The Museum obtained most of these remains from the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. Many have not been on display since and are being shown in their original 19th century display cases.
But make no mistake – Mummies is truly a 21st century exhibition. The Field Museum has a large collection of Egyptian and Peruvian mummies, many of which had not been thoroughly studied until last year because avoiding damage was a priority. In 2011, Museum scientists performed non-invasive CT scans of several mummies, virtually “unwrapping” them with digital technology. In the exhibition, these mummies are shown along with remarkably detailed scan images, allowing visitors to see for the first time pointers to the methods used for mummification, signs of serious injuries and illnesses, and offerings and jewelry placed inside the wrappings.
Scientists in Russia have grown plants from fruit stored away in permafrost by squirrels over 30,000 years ago.
The fruit was found in the banks of the Kolyma River in Siberia, a top site for people looking for mammoth bones.
The Institute of Cell Biophysics team raised plants of Silene…
Phil Marion at Petra, Jordan.
Cenote-Ik-Kil @ Yucatan
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Q:
Seeing how your book requires certain knowledge to understand the bigger picture, how do inform your readers?
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A:
Well, throughout the story I make sure to include historical background information as well as background character history so that the reader can fully understand what is going on.
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Q:
Where do you get most of your ideas?
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A:
I get my ideas from topics that interest me. Most of these can be seen on my blog, http://alicesbermudaquest.blogspot.com/. Then I try to investigate them and search for credible sources, such as Oxford Press, and elaborate on the information I find.
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Q:
What is your favorite thing you’ve written?
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A:
My favorite part would have to be the conjure of elements in the Chamber of Memories.
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Q:
What’s your favorite character?
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A:
My favorite elaborated characters are Alice and Xander since they play their roles as defender and guardian from the Ancient family of Atlantis and fight against evil. They give the story some spice.
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Q:
Who do you act out the scenes in your book with?
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A:
I see it all like a movie in my head, normally when I listen to music. I see my friends doing what they love in a fictional story, and with magic.
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Q:
How do you choose the names for your characters?
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A:
Every character is a real person I know transformed into the people I describe in The Chronicles of the Forgotten.
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Q:
What is the purpose of your books?
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A:
The purpose of my books is to inform the world about three forgotten, ancient cultures: Egyptians, Sumerian, and Mayans. Of course, also how I believe they all originated from the destroyed Atlantis, and how they are all connected with their architecture, astronomy, and mythology.
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Q:
How would you attract people of no prior knowledge of this?
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A:
I wrote my story as an adventure, a quest, a mystery, and a romance, with supernatural events, since these are generally what people want to read. Heptibire covers the conspiracy genre, but is still being written. I hope these main genres combined into one will attract readers into the story and they will finish reading each book craving for more and perhaps even develop a lust for the ancient civilizations.
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Q:
Are any of these events relevant to your own life?
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A:
The entire first chapter of Dragereth is based on my life and how I wish some of my future would be. The conflicts between Alice and David are true. The only fault would be is that they never got back together, the real Alice found here soulmate.
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Q:
Did you find any flaws as you wrote your first book?
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A:
I found many flaws seeing how I am an amateur writer. I try my best to let the ideas flow naturally and then make sure they are a coherent story. There are still times that I pick up Dragereth and read something that doesn’t entirely convince me.
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Q:
Are there any recent works that you admire that can relate to your book?
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A:
I would have to say Fenisca is completely adapted to recent excavations and discoveries about the deities of the Sumerians. The fact that the real Gerardo and the real Mariana are now a couple is amazing because a few weeks before they got together I wrote them as a couple in Fenisca.
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Q:
Who or what inspired you?
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A:
My inspiration started when I was in 6th grade in Tucson, AZ when I started the story The Mystery of Niacin City. From there I always had the beginning but the story wouldn’t convince me. Starting in June 2009 is when I started writing it all again with many of the same characters but based them on real people.
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Q:
What are the major themes of your books?
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A:
The first scene I wrote was the whirlpool setting with Chloe and Eric. Chloe was sucked into the whirlpool and met Xander. However, these original ideas turned into a story know known as Dragereth and that scene has changed almost completely.
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Q:
What is the major theme of your books?
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A:
The major theme would be the revival of Atlantis by destroying the ancient gods that ended Atlantis 10,000 years ago during the last precession of the equinoxes.
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Q:
What do you wish was different about your books? Or what would you take out or change?
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A:
If I could change one thing about them I would start over with the war that split the Atlantean population into three groups, the fallen ones, at the two war flanks. I would describe how those who were not on the island survived, as well as Xander’s voyage to recover Adira from the bottom of the sea. I am considering writing a Behind the Scenes version of The Chronicles when I finish the series.
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Q:
What is the hardest part about what you’re writing?
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A:
The hardest part for me is making sure all of the real facts are not confused with artificial ones. For example, describing the temples in Fenisca and the deity demons are true, but the Pendants are false, simply ideas from my imagination. These could all be taken as true or all as fiction. I plan on fixing this by being the first fictional series with footnotes for my sources.
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Q:
What is your favorite part of the whole story?
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A:
My favorite part is Alice slowly transforming into Adira and her falling in love with Xander while she is engaged to David.
