Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
Back in October I picked up a couple of wooden model kits in a mall near the Drum Tower in Beijing. Yesterday my daughter and I finished the first one, an Imperial Chinese dragon (count the toes), brought to life by a talented but uncredited kitmaker. I built one of these kits, an apatosaurus, when I was a teen. And now a grand-daughter of the Empire is eager to start building our second kit, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven.
[More blog entries about china, dragons, modelbuilding; kina, drakar, modellbygge.
Comments
>The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven
Cool. Reminds me of some songtitles by death metal band Nile:
"Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Crescent Shaped Horns",
"Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water",
"Libation Unto the Shades Who Lurk in the Shadows of the Temple of Anhur"
and, of course,
"Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise"
Posted by: Pär | August 25, 2008 1:54 PM
Those are probably real ancient Egyptian phrases. There's a very long papyrus text on healing spells.
Posted by: Martin R | August 25, 2008 3:20 PM
That is cool as heck. Can you be my dad too? :-)
Posted by: Suki Fuller | August 26, 2008 12:24 PM
Depends on whether I know your mom or not, I guess...
Posted by: Martin R | August 26, 2008 12:27 PM
In the museum shop of the Nationalmuseum, Copenhagen (Denmark) I found the perfect archaeologist mum's gift for the kids: a mini-excavation of a dinosaur skeleton, in some kind of plaster and with a stick and a brush. We had so much fun excavating together on the kitchen table, finally managed to get out all the pieces last week and now after "conservation" (i.e. washing the bones gently and leaving to dry for some days) we'll put it all together tomorrow night. Wish me luck; I was the one to break more (dinosaur) bones during excavation...
Posted by: Nanni | August 28, 2008 12:36 PM
My Gawd, you make beautiful babies, Martin!
Posted by: Christina | August 31, 2008 1:56 AM
Thank you! And thanks to their mothers, they've got brains too!
Posted by: Martin R | August 31, 2008 2:10 AM