Tourism, Textiles, Finance, & Food: Ancient Egypt Then and Now

♪[music playing--no dialogue] ♪♪
>> Dr. Allen Lanham: Today, we have four
very excellent speakers from the Department of
Family and Consumer Sciences with us.
To present those speakers will be Dr. Wahby.
>> Dr. Wahby: Thank you.
Good morning and thank you for coming.
Now, these nice scarves are made at EIU,
so if you want to get one some time or learn something about
them, here's Dr. Katy Shaw to tell you.
She is kind enough, with her assistants and students,
to do this, which is going to be used on November 2nd
when students do the great grand finale of
the symposium and walk like Egyptians and dance
like Egyptians and sport like Egyptians, ancient Egyptians.
So, this is kind of a plaque for the last day.
Without much ado, we'll start the Family and Consumer Sciences
show for Ancient Egypt.
>> Dr. Besty Pudliner: Okay.
[audience applause]
Good morning, I'm Dr. Betsy Pudliner
and, again, I'm in Family and Consumer Sciences.
I teach Hospitality and Tourism, so I'm in the travel industry.
I'm going to talk about travel in the ancient world.
What we really have to remember is that we are embedded in the
natural, physical, economic and social environments;
like Chicago has a specific environment,
these three environments.
At this time period, man is basically coming into its own.
What is really unique is that ever since humans have been
upright, we have needed a bed for our head and we needed
a butt for our seat, okay, or a seat for our butts for like
restaurants and stuff.
So, we've always head to eat, we've always had to sleep.
There are some really interesting,
if you look at the timeline, okay.
One of the things that starts the modern era
of travel is the Sumerians.
Now, I know this is an Egyptian, it's in the Mediterranean area,
but what it is is they came up with the idea of money,
recording information, so they came up with
writing, as well as the tour guide.
Actually, people taking people around, becoming experts and
showing them where to travel to.
So, this is 4,000 BCE.
Along the banks of the Nile, because of the
fertility of the water and the area, the type of stone
and everything that is going, we see a unification of Egypt.
We see a lot of city-states arising, that they're
being connected by the Nile itself.
This is between 3,000 and 1200 BCE.
Again, some more technology that is coming about and this is,
I know you're going to think this is really strange,
but it's actually an industrial revolution
because we see a shift, again, in technology.
Technology is playing a great part in the development
of different countries and especially in Egypt.
What we see is not only sturdy crafts, carts are becoming
available, the wheel, the Sumerians, again, come up
with the wheel, but there is the ability to travel further
and farther than they were before.
So, again, sturdy carts.
So, the Egyptians are now going and penetrating further into
Africa, as well as traveling around the Mediterranean.
We see turquoise and copper being
extracted in Egypt and the Sinai.
Again, they're cutting into the stone and they're building the
elaborate tombs for the pharaohs.
Now, they may have had other reasons for the building of the
Great Pyramids, but actually because of these curiosities,
these colossal buildings that no one has ever seen before,
word is getting out because we're able to travel further
and they're bringing people around the Mediterranean.
Sturdy river crafts are able to navigate the Nile
and the surrounding seas much more so than before.
We also have, now, a market segment coming about.
Men of great wealth, men of great power are traveling to
far distant lands for exchange.
It's becoming a world dynamic.
So, we see greater economic exchange,
greater socio-cultural impacts or acculturalization.
Acculturalization is when two different cultures come together
and they either clash or they exchange and become interwoven.
We also see a change in the physical
and natural environment.
We see the, again, the horses are coming in, technology,
and we see people chronicling their travel.
We see journals coming about.
I couldn't find my reference for this, and this is later on in
the timeline, but we see, because of the writing
capability, people are now jotting down their experiences
and they're talking to people.
They say, "Look, we need these services.
I'm a person coming from the government.
I want these types of services.
I should be put up in these type of hostels.
I want the best food.
I want to be able to travel in relatively peace and quiet."
They're leaving behind a chroniclization of what
they've been doing.
Like this gentleman, Prince, I'm sorry
I'm not able to say this really correct, Harkhuf?
>> male speaker: Harkhuf, yes.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Okay.
He's left actually inscribed in his tomb, "Open up the way
into this country," Sudan.
"Did it in seven months
and brought back all kinds of goods and rare products."
Again, souvenirs.
We see the development of travel activities.
King of Ur, I don't know if I said that correctly.
>> male speaker: Ur.
>> Dr. Pudliner: My dad would be
proud, he's a history teacher.
We see the beginning of roads being built, actually use of
products and materials to actually create roads.
Now, they didn't come into their own until the Roman times, but,
again, something to make it easier.
We see the first hotels coming about
and they're called caravansaries,
don't know if I said that right.
Again, it's just not a place for people to lay their heads, but
it's also the first bizarres, people to exchange goods.
I see something, I like it, I want it.
I want to take it back with me.
The Phoenicians are now improvising.
They're traveling all around the Mediterranean and they're
passing words about the different areas,
especially Egypt.
They're exchanging their own goods and they're going as far
north as the British Isles.
We have a development from the sturdy carts now
to the chariot in Egypt.
Again, a much more sturdy device to take them around
different areas of Egypt, different areas of Africa.
You also see a really big development in military.
Again, you want to travel in peace.
You want to get from one place to the
other and not be bothered.
Now, we really see, what we like to call in tourism,
is these pockets of activities, these constructions of
different places where people can go and see things.
Even though they had other connotations, the pharaohs
wanted these elaborate tombs because, "I'm a pharaoh.
This is me.
I'm a big person and I want to be remembered."
These other people that were traveling around the
Mediterranean, they see these things and they say, "Wow.
I can take this back.
Look at this.
I can take this back to my own country.
You've got to go see this."
They're taking drawings.
They're drawing things, they're actually making the first
postcards and taking them back to their own countries.
They're actually creating the trade routes.
Queen, okay hold on, Hatsup.
>> male speaker: Hatshepsut.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Hatshepsut, thank you.
Sorry, again, I'm terrible at this.
She's one of the first women to actually travel along the Nile
and down into greater Africa.
Her travels are actually recorded at the Temple of
Deir Ha Breha?
>> male speaker: Deir El-Bahri.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Deir El-Bahri at Luxor.
That I could get, so forgive me.
We have one of the first hostels.
Again, these are actually now you're paying for a stay and
you're actually exchanging money to stay in a hotel.
They are, before they're more development from the, I can't
say, the original hostels.
Up until 500 BCE, again, we now have greater number of people
coming from Europe, greater coming from northern France area
down into Egypt, and they're leaving their mark behind
because that's one of the things that tourists do.
We like to leave our mark on things.
We like to take pieces of stone home.
So, the Greeks actually left their little scrolls, or their
graffiti, and actually, that word you now see, come out
of Egypt and out of the Greeks graffiti, and they've
left their mark on Egyptian artifacts.
If I really take this into the 19th century, this is actually,
you can pinpoint this time period to actually the start
of organized tourism, like the tour guides.
You always wanted somebody that knew how to get there and knew
how to get back because travel was dangerous.
But think of the modern tour guide, think of the
grand tour back in the 19th century.
This is actually part of the economy now and people
are now giving money in exchange for services.
So, it is actually pinpoint organized tourism into this era.
So, from 3,000 up until 500 BCE.
Are you ready?
>> female speaker: I'm ready.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Okay.
>> Dr. Wahby: Thank you.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Pudliner: You're welcome.
>> Dr. Katy Shaw: Okay.
Good morning everybody.
My name is Katy Shaw and I teach in Family and Consumer Sciences.
I teach Textile and Apparel Design and Merchandising as
well, which would be the business end of the fashion
industry and apparel industry.
So, I'm going to talk to you a little
bit about textiles and fashion.
We said textiles primarily for our name in the program.
It seemed more, it kind of had a flow better.
So, I'm going to focus a little bit on both, but the first thing
I think, perhaps, that we think of when we think of
the Egyptian culture is linen.
Linen is a cellulosic fiber, meaning that it comes from the
stem of a plant and I have a flax plant there in the corner
for you to kind of see.
Linen textiles are some of the oldest
fibers found in the world.
So, researchers will go back and forth as to whether or not silk
is older or linen is older.
Linen is, sometimes, also used in currency.
Our U.S. dollar actually has linen in
it, as well as cotton.
Of course, mummies were also wrapped in linen cloths.
It was seen as a symbol of light and purity and
also as a display of wealth.
You can see in the picture here that the Egyptians are
harvesting the flax plants and then they would weave those
into the linen products.
Now, at this point, they could weave it so that it was fairly
fine; however, it would be nothing compared to the fineness
that we can weave today, as far as linen goes.
If we talk about dress or fashion a little bit, the
undermost garment was a loincloth or skent.
Usually, the lower class would wear only a
skent or a loincloth.
Then, upper class citizens would cover that with, kind of was a
depiction of your social class.
So, if you could afford leather to go over your linen cloth or
your loincloth, that was one step up.
Then, if you could get an extra covering over that, it was
another and so on and so on.
So, you might have a wrapped skirt,
which was called a schenti.
Then, also, women also wore skirts as well.
So, the dress was fairly similar for men and women.
The skirt length also varied between the different kingdoms.
So, we have the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom.
The Old Kingdom, the skirt was generally knee length
or shorter and fitted closely around the hips.
The Middle Kingdom, the skirt was elongated,
sometimes reaching to the ankle.
Shorter versions were available if you were working and needed
to be able to move around better and all of that.
Fabric was usually sheer and you could see
the loin cloth visibly underneath it.
During the Middle Kingdom, we also, some of the
pictures depict pleats being used in their skirts.
So, that's kind of interesting how they did that.
Perhaps, the used a starching method or a
board to fold the pleats.
Then, the New Kingdom.
Again, we see the use of pleats in the skirts and they were,
again, they kind of, we saw them get shorter
and they fit more closely.
So, it's interesting that in the Old Kingdom they were short,
the Middle Kingdom, a little bit longer and then we go back
to the short skirt in the New Kingdom.
Just like we see in fashion today.
In the 1960s, it was all about the mini-skirts, then we go back
to the maxi-skirts, which are really long, and mini-skirts
and back and forth.
As far as historically, what's happening in our environment
can affect our fashion.
So, women also wore a tight fitting colorful dress, often
called a sheath dress.
Then, if I click on this, it shows you that sometimes
they had a beaded garment that was put over
the wrapped linen sheath underneath.
Does this remind anyone of any Western wear in the 1900s?
The 20th century, early 20th century?
>> female speaker: Flappers.
>> Dr. Shaw: Exactly.
So, if this kind of reminds you of a flapper dress, and I have
pictures later to show you, but where we see the beaded garments
going over and they're see through and then a non-see
through garment underneath them.
So, make-up was also important during this time and this is,
sometimes people don't think of this as part of fashion but it's
something that we call a body modification, so even lotions
could be part of fashion and a part of make-up.
So, it served both cosmetic and health purposes.
So, they did it not only to make themselves more beautiful and as
appealing to the opposite sex, but also lotions to help protect
their skin in the hot desert sun and all of that sort of thing.
Jewelry was also extremely popular throughout the history
of the Egyptian nation.
It often indicated just as it does today, the bigger my
engagement ring, the more wealth I have.
The same was true for the Egyptian culture.
It indicates a social position and a level of wealth.
Even the poor adorned themselves with as
much jewelry as possible.
So, as much as I could get, I would put on.
As we know, they often buried themselves with all of their
jewelry with them, and we're thankful for that, so that we
could discover it and learn about their culture today.
So that could be taken and used in the afterlife.
This was probably my favorite thing that I learned while
discovering and learning about Egyptian fashion, was the
discovery of King Tut's tomb.
So, it was discovered in 1922 and it played a large role in
the fashions of the Western world.
I had never really thought about that but if you look back at
some of the different pictures, I have the flapper dress with
the beaded sheath over it and all
sorts of different influences.
Eyeliners became more popular, the bright red
lips and all sorts of things.
It was also the primary influence of
the Art Deco design.
So, if you think about, also, gold thong sandals
were big in the 1920s, eyeliner, and etcetera.
If we jump ahead to 40 years later and the influence that it
had on the Western world, we can look at Liz Taylor in her
version of Cleopatra in 1963.
So, I wasn't around in the 1960s, maybe some of you were,
so can you tell me some of the fashion trends of the 1960s that
you think had an Egyptian influence?
I'm not saying any of you were around in the 1960s either but
maybe you read a history book or two.
[audience laughter]
>> female speaker: I remember my mom
having a lot of two-toned gold jewelry
and the large necklaces.
>> Dr. Shaw: Okay.
>> female speaker: And the compacts
that she carried were very elaborate with
a lot of turquoise on them.
>> Dr. Shaw: Okay.
Exactly.
Yeah.
>> male speaker: Also, the make up, all
the colors around your eyes and things like that.
>> Dr. Shaw: Yes.
>> male speaker: I was born in the
1950s so by that time I really recall the late 1960s
just being flooded with all of that.
>> Dr. Shaw: I forgot to tell you
for make-up their favorite colors were
green and blue, for eye make- up, and black of course.
They ground down different plants and added liquid to them
to make the different make-up.
We do see a lot of green and blue and, of course,
the cat eyes as well.
>> male speaker: What about the things
that African American women put on their heads,
maybe starting about that time?
>> Dr. Shaw: That's true as well.
>> male speaker: Isn't it the things
that sort of look like the [unclear dialogue].
>> Dr. Shaw: Well, and hair pieces
and wigs were popular in the 1960s as well; like wearing
a flip in your ponytail, which would make
it look fuller and bigger.
Wigs were used a lot in the Egyptian culture as well.
So, fashion in Egypt today.
I found one primarily fashion designer and he is in Cairo.
Soucha is his name.
I have a little video clip to show you.
This is from 2010.
I don't know if there is sound but we can watch.
But you can see historical influences,
even in modern day design.
So, here the green.
Gold.
Color is important.
One thing I forgot, this necklace I wore
it especially for today.
It's from the 1920s.
It was my great grandmother's and I thought I would put it on
because you can even see, kind of,
the Egyptian influences of it as well.
My boots also.
If you think about Egyptian tapestry,
linen and things like that.
So, we owe a lot of our fashion influences
to the Egyptian culture.
If you think about the jeweled sandals that have been popular
the last couple of summers and other sorts of things.
Okay.
>> male speaker: Thank you.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Shaw: You're welcome.
My name is Axton Betz and I'm an assistant
professor of Consumer Studies in the Family and
Consumer Sciences Program.
My research interest focuses on identity theft and other
consumer fraud issues.
So, that's the focus of my presentation today.
So, as probably many of you know, there are various forms
of financial fraud that are increasing not only here at
home in the United States, but internationally as well.
Fraud is increasing in Egypt, particularly financial fraud,
and I have some specific examples of those, including
advanced fee scams, credit card fraud, phishing, and I'll
describe what that is later, and a variety
of other financial frauds.
Financial fraud has been in existence for hundreds of years.
It's just over time the schemes evolve in different ways,
but the basic ideas of financial fraud have been in existence
for a very, very long time.
So, with regards to Ancient Egypt in fraud, there was fraud
going on with the scribes who were keeping the pharaohs books.
The scribes, their job was to inventory grain, gold and
anything of value that could be used as currency.
There was theft going on with the scribes.
They were stealing these items that could be used as currency
and this got to be such a problem over time, that the
solution was to have two scribes inventory the same items.
If there was any discrepancy between the two scribes, the
punishment for both of those scribes was death.
So, pretty stiff punishment for theft.
>> male speaker: [unclear dialogue]
>> Professor Betz: That's true, that
is definitely possible.
Financial fraud, again, is a concern in Egypt.
According to the American Chamber of Commerce in
Egypt, we need to raise consumer awareness
regarding financial fraud.
Sounds pretty similar to what we're hearing
here at home as well.
Again, some examples, I'll get into each of these as I go
through the presentation, include credit card fraud,
online bank fraud, and advanced fee scams.
In 2009, $62 million was stolen in Egypt from consumers by
stealing credit card and debit card information online.
One reason that credit card and debit card fraud occurring
online is such a problem in Egypt is because security is an
issue between the banks and the credit card
companies and the merchants.
Communication is a problem and, basically,
the security is very, very weak.
So, people who commit these scams commit these frauds,
they know it and they take advantage of it.
Also in 2009, 53 people were arrested for committing
online bank fraud.
These 53 individuals included U.S
nationals and Egyptian nationals.
This was the largest online financial fraud ring, where
they actually had arrests in the United States.
What people were doing, this originated in Egypt, Egyptian
nationals were sending emails to Bank of America customers and
Wells Fargo customers saying something to the effect of,
"Your online bank account password has been compromised,
there's something wrong with your account in some way.
We need you to click this link," the link is always in the email,
"we need you to click on this link
and reset your information."
What this particular phishing scam was doing, these phishing
emails, they were asking for people's bank account numbers
and online bank account passwords.
People who got these emails, it elicited fear because they were
being told that their account information was compromised,
the email looked like it really came from Wells Fargo
and Bank of America, and so people were giving their
personal information to these scammers.
So, my last fraud that I want to talk to you guys about that is a
huge problem in Egypt, is advanced fee fraud.
Now, this is something that has been going on in the United
States for a much longer period of time and here, in the United
States, people are wising up to it and they're not falling for
it as much, but in Egypt this is still a major problem.
What happens is that a potential victim gets an email that says
"I can promise you this large sum of money if you send me
what amounts to a much lesser fee as a transaction fee."
People fall for this stuff, they want that large sum of money.
Some people don't believe in the adage that if it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is.
So, they send the transaction fee to wherever they're
directed to send it to.
What happens is that the scam artist keeps that transaction
fee and the victim has no idea how to contact them or if they
email them back, they never get a response.
So, the scammer keeps that transaction fee and the victim
sees no money from this promised large sum of money.
With that, I will hand it over to Kathy.
[audience applause and laughter]
>> female speaker: You did good.
>> Dr. Wahby: Ancient Egyptian cookies.
>> Kathy Rhodes: Fresh from the pyramid today.
[audience laughter]
>> Professor Betz: Okay, unhook me please?
>> female speaker: Sorry, I don't want to
get it caught in your hair.
I'm not trying to hurt you.
>> Professor Betz: It's okay.
I got it on there good.
Here, you need that.
>> Professor Kathy Rhodes: Oh, do I need that?
>> Dr. Pudliner: Yes, unfortunately.
>> Professor Rhodes: I thought everybody
could hear me.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Oh, I know.
I thought so too for me.
I'm sorry.
Okay, there you go.
>> Professor Rhodes: Don't get so close Betsy.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Sorry.
>> Professor Rhodes: Okay.
That looks really nice.
I am Kathy Rhodes and I am going to
talk today about the Egyptian food.
I don't use a lot of PowerPoint because
I kind of think I know food a lot.
Egyptian food, though, when I started researching this,
was amazing to me.
I was so excited about it because of what I found out.
What I found out was that if everyone today would eat like
they did back in the day, 3,000 years ago, we would all be fit
as a fiddle because what they did is they ate exactly the way
God intended us to eat, which was off the land.
So, we ate vegetables, we ate fruits, we ate fish.
We had very little meat, very little pork and beef, because
their was no way to raise the cattle there in the desert.
Egypt is a very dry, dry country.
So, the only thing they did have though, was if they lived by the
Nile, is they had the Nile.
The Nile, of course it would flood, and then when it would
recede, it would leave silt and different things on the land
that later on, they could use to plant their crops with.
They could plant their crops in the land.
The soil itself was just black, that's how fertile it was.
It grew the best wheat and the best wheat made the best bread.
It also made the best beer, which beer and wine were the two
main beverages that we had for Egypt; that's what they drank.
Then, the bread also.
So, it was bread, the beer, and the wine were your main staples.
They also had figs and dates.
The cookies you're enjoying now, I hope you're enjoying them,
they just came out of the oven, that's why I was a little late,
they have dates in them.
I flew them in yesterday, from this guy here, just so we could
make your cookies today, okay.
[male laughter]
>> Professor Rhodes: I could have used
raisins but I thought, no, let's use dates, because that's what
they ate, was dates.
The figs and the wine, they ate them also, as food, but they
also used them to make wines.
So, that's, hence, where that came from.
They also used a lot of pomegranates and
pomegranate wine and pomegranate seeds.
We think that we have invented something when we're using
the pomegranate seeds.
Forget it, Egypt had it way before we did.
So, they ate more healthy then, especially poor people.
Poor people could not afford anything.
They could not, I mean they were lucky to get a garden
raised so that they had vegetables out of that garden.
They didn't have money for meat.
They didn't have money for the olive oils and the coconuts
such as the rich did.
The rich ate very lavishly and the rich were not as fit
as the poor people.
Of course, the poor people also had to work.
They had to physically get out and tend the garden and
physically go out and pick it and do everything else with the
garden, among other things.
They had open air markets that sometimes they could
take some of the things.
If they had anything left, they could take it to the market
and sell it to get money to buy different things with.
They also had fruits.
I mean they had, I can't even remember, pomegranates
and different fruits like that.
So, it was fruits and their vegetables.
Vegetables were mainly cabbages, turnips, what else, onions.
Onions were a huge staple for the Egyptians back
then because that flavor.
It had a lot of flavor for the Egyptians and their meal
planning and in their cooking, their cooking process.
They had onions, they had garlic, different things like
that, but it was all natural.
They didn't use any fertilizers of any kind.
They used no chemicals of any kind.
So, everything was fine.
Once you take this into your body, if you don't fill it full
of chemicals and all this stuff, it makes the body better.
So, that's why the poor people ate more healthy
than the rich people did.
Rich people, they could afford to decant their wines and
beverages, their beers and different things,
in nice silver and bronze pots.
Where the poor people had clay pots.
It wasn't until, I can't remember what year it was,
but anyway, that's when they lined the inside like a glaze
on the inside of the pot because at times, the pot was made
out of clay and it would seep through, whatever beverage was
in there, would seep through, which would cause problems.
So, later on, they did glaze the inside of the pot.
As far as cooking, the poor people cooked with clay pots.
They cooked over an open fire.
Usually, it was an open fire, it was usually on a roof, an open
roof, it was on top of the roof.
Well, I don't know how you have a closed roof,
I don't know, oh well.
Anyway, so they did that.
They might have a place out back where they dug a pit or lined it
with branches and this is how they cooked.
They cooked in the old clay pots.
If they were going to bake bread, they
had grown their wheat.
So, the baking of the bread was a huge process.
It was huge.
They would have to go harvest the wheat, they'd have to dry
the wheat, then they'd have to grind it by hand into the flour.
Then, they had to bake the bread, which it just took
forever because of how their cooking things were, their
cooking stoves or whatever they had, their little ovens.
So, it would take a long time for that.
So, that's one of the things they had plentiful of.
They didn't have a, like I said before, they didn't have a lot
of meat or anything so that's what they
ate, was bread and beer.
So, they did that and they also had the spices, coriander and
cumin and, well, garlic.
I consider that a spice because it's real flavorful.
They had salt, they had different things like that that
they used to flavor the meats and vegetables with.
They also got fish.
They got their fish from the Nile, so the Nile was very
important to them not only for their livelihood of the fish,
but it was also for the livelihood of the land because
it did make the land very fertile.
It also, back in the day, I think Egyptians were one of
the first, if I'm wrong please correct me, was one of the
first with the irrigation with the Nile, was that not correct?
Yes.
So, that too.
We thought we invented irrigation, no we didn't.
They did many years ago.
That too was very helpful to them to make
sure that it was irrigated.
So, they watered their plants, they watered their crops with
it, they drank the water, they bathed in it, they did all kinds
of things in that water I'm sure.
They also did their laundry with that Nile River.
It also produced a trades market, is that correct, in,
do you know?
>> male speaker: A super highway.
>> Professor Rhodes: A super highway of
sorts that they had over many years.
Today, I have to tell you this.
This is what I've been practicing all morning,
I don't know why I'm having a tough time
saying it though.
Fafala.
Does anybody know what Fafala is?
What is that, what do we have in Italy when Italians came to--?
>> female speaker: It's a pasta isn't it?
>> Professor Rhodes: No, it's a bean.
>> female speaker: Oh.
>> Professor Rhodes: The fa fa la bean.
>> male speaker: The fava bean.
>> Professor Rhodes: The fava bean, yes.
Fafala is like a bean cake.
Today, it's still used.
Many of the foods that were back 3,000 years ago or 2500 years
ago has evolved and we're still eating it today.
Hummus is one as well.
Hummus, we use hummus.
I use hummus a lot.
In Pantera, we use that a lot as a dip
with pita breads, pocket breads.
The breads were made in 30 different shapes.
I don't know, bread is bread, but they wanted to make it
different shapes and make it more interesting.
So, yeah.
So, a lot of the things that they did back in the day,
we still do today.
So, I was very, very thrilled and privileged to be able to
research the foods because I thought it's just food but I
was so interested, I got so wrapped up in how it was made,
how they cooked it and then how they ate it and who could
afford what, and in all actuality it was all about who
had what back in the day.
So, kind of like what it is today but not
quite so bad.
But it was then.
Poor people ate, they were healthy, these people ate,
they had money, not so healthy and that's the way it is today.
So, that's what I found out.
[audience applause and laughter]
>> Professor Rhodes: Thank you, I hope you
enjoy the cookies.
>> female speakers: Thank you.
They are good.
>> Dr. Wahby: Any questions or comments?
Well, I have a question for each of the speakers, if I may?
>> Dr. Wahby: I'll start with food,
Kathy Rhodes.
In the burial tombs, of this size or any other size,
you find jars and some grains and some food,
what do you think about that?
>> Professor Rhodes: Well, to me, I thought
it was for them to take on their journey because the
body was going to take a journey and that's what that was to me.
Because in all actuality, when they open some of these tombs
up, that's what you found in there.
You found the jars and different things in there and that's what
leads us to know what they used as utensils back then as well
and how they stored things and, actually,
how they preserve things.
>> Dr. Wahby: Yeah.
>> Professor Rhodes: It was drying in the jars.
>> Dr. Wahby: We found something
very strange and you correct me on this
if you like, at a certain height here where they,
in the pyramidical shape, the grains were alive still, after
these many years, because of this shape, they have something
about the one third or something that says if you
put anything here, the food wouldn't rot or something.
We can experiment with it even now.
For some reason, this shape preserves food.
>> Professor Rhodes: You know what, that's
funny that you would say that because in Khlem
Hall right now in FCS, we're doing some research
on some gluten free breads.
We have a pizza crust that's laid out for five days now,
maybe six days, I don't know.
It was doing fine, there was no mold or anything on it, and
that's what we're trying to make, is a shelf-stable bread.
Someone had mistakenly put a small calculator on top of that
bread and right where that calculator was
at has an outline of mold.
So, what does that have to do with, see how that--
>> Dr. Wahby: It's something there.
>> Professor Rhodes: It makes me think, yes.
>> Dr. Wahby: That's a good idea.
>> Dr. Wahby: By the way, did
they eat meat at the time?
>> Professor Rhodes: They did not.
The poor did not eat as much meat as the rich.
They had mutton but it was beef and pork was what the rich ate
but they had to be able to afford to bring it in on the
Nile from other countries.
So, that's what they ate.
They ate prairie animals, birds and things like that as well.
>> Dr. Wahby: Okay.
Thank you very much.
We will come back to you if anybody has any questions.
Go to the fraud and the money.
>> Professor Betz: Okay.
>> Dr. Wahby: Did you read anything
in your research about fraud at the time or cheating in
the marketplace or any kind of evil thing that happened?
>> Professor Betz: Outside of the scribes
stealing from the pharaohs, no, I did not run across anything.
>> Dr. Wahby: Okay.
Do you have any idea about how much money can they count, to
million for example, or just $100 or
$1,000 or whatever the currency is?
Did they have big sums of money to talk about or just nickel or
dime or something?
>> Professor Betz: Well, what I read
didn't give specific numbers.
I got the impression that these sums were
large for that time period.
>> Dr. Wahby: Okay, well last question
for you at this time.
Some [unclear dialogue] would mention how did
they divide money between family members and the wills,
how to divide the acres accurately, how to
make replacement or equivalency of
square and circle with the pi thing, does this ring any bell?
>> Professor Betz: No, unfortunately.
>> Dr. Wahby: Well, it's interesting
for next presentation.
>> Professor Betz: Yes.
>> female speaker: Well, I would ask on
that, what was their currency?
Your first slide had the little circles.
>> Dr. Pudliner: That was the money
of the Sumerians.
>> female speaker: Oh.
>> Dr. Pudliner: That's actually shell money.
>> female speaker: Oh, okay.
>> Dr. Pudliner: It's like a shell money
and then they, basically, that was the currency
that was going around that different area until,
of course, the barter system and reciprocal
agreements and transactions.
>> female speaker: Okay.
>> Dr. Wahby: Tourism.
What were the indications of Crete having
a hotel or something?
>> Dr. Pudliner: That was one of the
first organized hostels where they actually
you paid for your actual bed and you actually had your
own room or a dormitory type room,
depending on your class system.
>> Dr. Wahby: So, it is documented?
>> Dr. Pudliner: Mmmm-hmmm.
Before that, you could stay anywhere.
What I didn't get into, also, was the
law of hospitality.
Of course, in that area it's built into the legal system.
You can not refuse someone hospitality
on certain situations.
Biblical times, if you, of course, you read the Bible in
Christian terms, again, Mary and Joseph were turned away at the
inn but the innkeeper could have faced certain problems with that
with the legal systems.
In Egypt, of course, it's built into you're supposed to, again,
your table is supposed to be if you have someone coming in under
a class system, your table has to be laid out with certain
things for that class system.
If you didn't, you had to put forth money or any type of
resources to get those items: specific oils, specific spices,
specific foods.
>> Dr. Wahby: Okay, It was interesting
because somebody from the government would say,
I'm important, put me in this or that, feed me this,
that's interesting.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Yeah, that was when they,
because of the dynamic increase in trade and travel,
people being able to go from one place to another,
you really see that status quo coming to,
even more prevalent in other societies.
Of course, Egypt took it to that next level because they were
the society of that time period, before the Greeks,
before the Romans.
>> Dr. Wahby: Do we find that it is
amazing that to us when we say Ancient Egypt,
we look back and say all of them are Ancient Egypt.
To them, there were 2,000 years between.
For example, here, you have this stella talking
about 1,000 years after this was built.
So, it is ancient to these guys who made some of the repair
or something to it after 1,000 years, but when we go as
tourists or as natives, you look at this and this as one piece
because they are kind of, as if you're looking into a series of
mountains, you lose the distance [unclear dialogue]
>> Dr. Rhodes: Also, you have to think
about we lose a lot in time because
one nation comes to prominence then, of course, they decline.
It's like Romans become very prominent after
the Ancient Egyptians and then, of course,
the decline but you can see that within the landscape itself.
If you would take pictures from that time period
and you can see the build-up of different attractions,
as we call them today.
Society, you can see written into
the landscape itself, a history.
If you would look at the build-up and the architecture
and the sophistication of the architecture because of the
technology of what was happening.
Then, people coming to visit and that exchange and taking it back
to the different areas of the Mediterranean, of course.
Then, you see the Greeks building.
Of course, you can take it back to the Ancient Egyptians on the
different styles and building.
It's like how did they do that, let's take that back now and
can we improve our society.
>> Dr. Wahby: I concur with you with the
tourism thing because in the oldest book in the Bible,
the Book of Job, is the first mention to the pyramids.
He was living in the land near current Palestine, Jordan,
in Uz land, as you call it, and they heard about the pyramids
and heard about rich people and heard about pharaohs.
This is very old, that's the oldest book in history that
says I'm not so proud of myself, that's Job saying,
I was so modest, I'm not like those people who are proud to
build pyramids for their death burials.
So, these things have been known all over the place as you said.
>> Dr. Pudliner: Again, the Egyptians
were building these things for the personification
of the pharaohs.
But then you had the festival came into its own
at this time period because it's now
just not a celebratory because the movement of the sun across,
the ages of the pharaohs.
People were coming not only for the religious festivals but now
they have all of this structure to look at and to draw from
and to write about and you see the, actually, the organization
of festivals and actually tour guides and tour brochures.
They actually see information coming out of Egypt.
Pockets of information getting sent back, even if it's oral
and it's communicated by mouth, you've got a verbal brochure.
It's like you have to go for this religious, even though it
may not be my religion, they're going to see this spectacle.
So, actually, my background's also in the historical aspects
of tourism and I always thought one thing.
Organized tourism was from the 1820's with the Scots because of
the Prince Regent going up to Edinburgh and visiting
Sir Walter Scott and actually organizing that event.
Actually doing this research, I actually can now pinpoint even
earlier organized tourism, not that it is
from the 19th century, but now you can see I have even
greater respect for organized tourism.
>> Dr. Wahby: Somebody told me that
it's written that Ancient Egyptians would go to
the festivals and the national, days of,
whatever, vacationing in the plateau in front of
the pyramids, the pyramid and the Sphinx, like we go today
for sound and light and see this.
That was their parking--
>> Dr. Pudliner: That was the movie theater.
>> Dr. Wahby: Yes, the amusement park
for them, so it's interesting.
Now, if you don't have any questions,
I have two questions for fashion.
What is it, psychologically speaking, that makes people
try to change fashion from time to time, year to year
or five years or whatever?
Why this urge to change old fashion, new fashion?
>> Dr. Shaw: The greatest reason to
change fashion is a person's need to be an individual.
So, you'll notice even if we look back to old fashion,
there's a Thoreau quote that says each generation laughs at
the last generation's fashions but follows religiously the new.
So, I think things change enough to where, as consumers, we have
to buy the newest thing but we have so many influences.
But the primary reason is because our just need to be
an individual so we have these subcultures that develop
different fashions.
So, right now the EMU fashion movement, which comes from
Japan, and the black kind of Hot Topic stores if you guys,
I don't know if you've heard of Hot Topic but you'll see a lot
of the teenagers wearing them.
Of course, that leads me to another point that it
comes primarily from younger generations,
as far as developing.
>> Dr. Wahby: So, when you say individual
you mean individual or group as a personality
of a generation, individuality?
>> Dr. Shaw: I would say both.
So, as much as we want to be an individual
and express ourselves, and some more than others,
we also want to fit in and not stand out too much,
so finding that happy medium I guess.
>> Dr. Wahby: Talking about this,
what is a happy medium between--let us talk
about the younger generations.
They want to belong and be like everybody else.
Mommy, I want to dress like other girls or boys--
>> Dr. Shaw: But, I also want to be the
first one to have the newest item.
>> Dr. Wahby: Yeah, yes.
>> Dr. Shaw: So, that's the difference.
>> Dr. Wahby: Is there a real struggle
between being really individual amongst and being in the group?
>>Dr. Shaw: Right, and there's something
called the fashion life cycle, so it's a
bell-curve basically.
So, it starts with just a few that accept the trend and then
we see a concentration in the market of, let's say the iPod.
So we have our first few people that will get the newest iPod
and then, slowly but surely, it saturates the market
and then it goes through a decline at the end.
>> Dr. Wahby: Now, take my question
in good faith, would the fashion leaders in the
world play on this to make big money
because they play on the urge or the instinct for human beings to
change, I want not to be bored, I want to belong
and I want to be an individual.
So, this natural instincts, are they, in a bad sense,
manipulated or played on so that these guys are meeting in Hawaii
and say let us make the skirt shorter.
Next year we'll make the other one.
No, no, keep this for the third year,
so we can milk the honey as we go.
>> Dr. Shaw: Absolutely, they're out
to make money and that's their way of
making money is to come up with the newest and
latest trend and hope that it goes into the culture and
catches on, basically.
There's two different theories.
There's the trickle down theory, that fashion comes from higher
economic statuses and trickles down into us commoners, I guess.
Then, there's also the subculture theory,
where it comes from the lower classes and, in a sense,
trickles up into the middle classes and upper classes.
>> Dr. Wahby: Do you advise the
younger generation to be wise, not to
be manipulated to buy these scams or whatever the market?
>> Dr. Shaw: When I'm giving fashion advice
to my students or telling them about being a good consumer,
I always say buy classics for your wardrobe that will
last you a long time and it also helps you to portray yourself
as a classy person.
Then, accessorize, with a lack of better way of saying it,
accessorize with trendy items that you don't necessarily have
to spend a lot of money on but you're still up to date
with your wardrobe.
>> Dr. Wahby: One last question.
Any cow, or any animal, wouldn't feel the urge to change fashion
or change and not feeling bored.
Animals don't have this, human beings have this.
What is it when you hear about some darwinian evolutionist who
say the baboon has 99% DNA like human beings
or something like that?
So, if the DNA is almost the same as animals,
you never see a monkey feeling bored
or changing dresses or wanting it.
What is it?
>> Dr. Shaw: What is it that sets us apart?
Is that what you're asking me?
>> Dr. Wahby: We can keep it for next session.
>> Dr. Wahby: That's a whole 'nother session.
I would say, well, my dissertation research
was on nostalgia.
You know, we have emotional connection to things that we
wear and places that we shop and places that we eat
and places that we travel.
So, things like this even give us a sense of nostalgia that we
can make that connection and 'wow, every time I
put on this necklace from now on, I will not only
think about the fact that my great-grandmother wore it,
but also that is was inspired by the Egyptian culture.
So, I would say just that kind of instinct.
>> Dr. Wahby: Some appreciation here.
Would you please come.
Stand up.
>> Dr. Lanham: As a small token of our
appreciation for our speakers, we have a nice certificate
from the Lumpkin College of Business Applied Sciences
and the Booth Library here at Eastern for Betsy Pudliner,
Axton Betz.
>> Dr. Shaw: That is for my graduate student.
>> Dr. Lanham: This is your graduate student.
>> Dr. Shaw: She's the one that
designed the scarves.
>> Dr. Lanham: Oh wonderful.
>> Dr. Shaw: I already received mine.
>> Dr. Lanham: You already have yours
and Katherine Rhodes, Kathy.
Thank you for those cookies.
[audience applause]
>> Dr. Lanham: You have enriched our
knowledge of Ancient Egypt and also current Egypt
and some other consumer advice along the way.
So, we appreciate making our journey much more lively
and entertaining, as well as thoughtful.
Thank you very much.
[no dialogue]