[Ansteorra] Ancient Roman Transvestite

[karen moon]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

Luciano wrote (re: Motel of the Mysteries)

>The picture of the lead archaeologists wife, wearing a "Sanitized for Your
>Protection" strip as a headband with toothbrushes as earrings is worth the
>price along.

The satire is even more delectable when you realize that illustration is based on the photograph of Schliemann's wife wearing the alleged "Gold of Helen of Troy", but with the said bathroom implements in place of the jewelry.  "Motel of the Mysteries" should be on every archaeologist's, historian's or independent scholar's bookshelf.  Aside from being a (mostly) still timely satire of both American life and the (hopefully lessening) propensity of archaeologists to assign religious meaning to artifacts, it's an entertaining and easily digested study in critical thinking -- in a Goofus v Gallant sort of way. ;-)

Mari
who for some odd and serendipitous reason had both Motel of the Mysteries and Michael Woods' The Search for Troy out of the shelves this weekend...

----- Original Message -----
From: Theron Bretz
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 1:49 PM
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Ancient Roman Transvestite

> I am reminded of a satirical article in Games magazine
> from back in the 80's, where archaeologists of the
> future do just that when discovering a motel.  MOVIEA
> and MOVIEB, they decide, were the gods, and the t.v.
> set was the shrine.

That was actually an excerpt from _Motel of the Mysteries_, a splendid work
of satire by David Macaulay, the same fellow who gave us Castle, City, The
Way Things Work, and Great Moments in Architecture (another satire).

The premise was that in the late 1970s, North America was buried under tons
of something called "Free Offer - Act Immediately".  Centuries later,
archaeologists began excavating a sleazy motel, which they believed was the
burial site of an important god-king.  The book is filled with line drawings
and misinterpretations of the artifacts unearthed.

The picture of the lead archaeologists wife, wearing a "Sanitized for Your
Protection" strip as a headband with toothbrushes as earrings is worth the
price along.

Luciano

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