Until recently, our Early Investigations program — designed to pique the interests of young scientists aged 5 to 8 — could only permit 50 kids per day. But due to popular demand, we’ve doubled our capacity to 100 children for our two most popular topics — Paleontology and Insect Zoo — beginning June 1. Beginning in September, tours of the new Hall of Ancient Egypt will also increase capacity to 100 students per day.
Each hour-and-a-half course includes a 45-minute interactive class and 45-minute exhibit hall tour led by one of our expert HMNS docents. Intimate tour groups are kept at under 10 children (usually three to five kids per tour), ensuring that each child is able to hear and encouraged to speak up and ask questions.
Hands-on classroom presentations include real specimens and artifacts. Students of Egypt create their own names in hieroglyphics, Insect Zoo attendees build anatomical butterflies, and young paleontologists dig in a miniature pit for fossilized remains.
Other available topics included Texas Wildlife, Under the Sea, Native North and Latin Americans and Africa. Early Investigations cost just $5 per person and includes exhibit access. Most classes go from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., but the schedule is flexible according to docent availability. For more information or to register your child, click here.
“Otzi the Iceman,” a 5,300-year-old Copper Age/Neolithic man, was found in 1991 preserved in the Similaun Pass of the Otztal Alps at 10,500 feet between Italy and Austria. Since the discovery, extensive ongoing scientific investigations indicate that he is unique because “Otzi” is practically an archaeological site in himself.
Unlike any other human remains of this age discovered to date, nearly every bit of Otzi is preserved, including his clothing, tools, gear, weapons — even his last meals. Amazing forensic science has recovered many details about his life through the material technology he carried, including a rare and precious copper axe, and vital medical and bioarchaeological data. This includes his DNA and a full genome record, where he lived in the prehistoric Val Senales, and reconstructions and possible scenarios of how he was killed.
Not only did Otzi treat his own parasites, showing prehistoric human medicine, but he used and carried more than 10 different tree and plant products that survived in his glacial context. Even his weapons demonstrate early archery using spiraling arrows, suggesting prehistoric knowledge of aerodynamic stabilizing technology. For those fascinated with forensic and C.S.I. investigation, Otzi may be the “coldest case” on record.
Dr. Patrick Hunt of the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project has studied Otzi’s tools and paleobotanical specimens in Bolzano, Italy, where Otzi resides frozen, as well as in the Otztal Alps where he lived and was found.
What: Distinguished Lecture: “Frozen in Time – The Story of Otzi the Iceman” When: Tuesday, May 14, 6:30 p.m. Where: Houston Museum of Natural Science main campus How Much: $12 for members, $18 for general public. Tickets available here.
The Book of the Dead, ironically, is not a book at all, but rather a diverse collection of magical spells intended to aid the dead in successfully navigating the complicated and oft tumultuous process of reaching the afterlife.
The bulk of the 200-plus spells discovered to date were created on papyrus, and a few have been found written on the walls of the tomb itself. Of the known spells, most are centered on the idea of making it safely to the afterlife.
All ancient Egyptians desired to safely reach the afterlife. The afterlife, after all, was a real place, and they believed magical spells would help them get there. Prosperous Egyptians would hire professional scribes to record the spells of their choice on fine papyrus sheets. This precious collection of spells was then packed away with their other grave goods, to be placed in their tomb at the time of their burial.
Not to worry, if you were not a “man of means,” so to speak, you could buy spells at the market. Many of the more popular spells were mass produced and could be purchased for a reasonable amount; there was even a space on the papyrus so that the purchaser’s name could be written on the document after purchase. Both the Ba and the Ka, the two aspects of the soul, would need this validation to know the spell belongs to them.
Read the Papyrus from the Book of the Dead of Ani description.
Looking at the picture of the papyrus and using the description, label what each of the lettered items are on the papyrus.
What other judgments stories are the you familiar with?
The above scene from the Book of the Dead of Ani reads from left to right. At the left, Ani and his wife enter the judgement area. In the center are the scales used for weighing the heart, attended by Anubis, the god of embalming. The process is also observed by Ani’s ba spirit (the human-headed bird), two birth-goddesses and a male figure representing his destiny.
Ani’s heart, represented as the hieroglyph for ‘heart’ (a mammal heart), sits on the left pan of the scales. It is being weighed against a feather, the symbol of Maat, the principle of order, which in this context means ‘what is right’. The ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of the emotions, the intellect and the character, and thus represented the good or bad aspects of a person’s life. If the heart did not balance out with the feather, then the deceased were condemned to non-existence, and was consumed by the ferocious ‘devourer’, Ammit, the strange beast, part-crocodile, part-lion, and part-hippopotamus, shown at the right of this scene.
However, a papyrus devoted to ensuring the continued existence of the deceased is not likely to depict this happening. Once the judgement is completed, the deceased was declared ‘true of voice’ or ‘justified’, a standard epithet applied to dead individuals in their texts. The whole process is recorded by the ibis-headed deity Thoth. At the top twelve deities supervise the judgement.
R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of t, (revised ed. C. A. R. Andrews) (London, The British Museum Press, 1985); R.B. Parkinson and S. Quirke, Papyrus, (Egyptian Bookshelf) (London, The British Museum Press, 1995); S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992); via the British Museum
My mom is a wonderful person. Most people think the same of their own mothers and, at least in my case, it’s true. She is always supportive, she let me win at board games (at least until I was an adult — now she shows no mercy), and she made sure I was able to visit museums and go watch Shakespeare plays.
When we think about mothering, certain preconceptions come to mind. We might think of an SUV full of kids being taken to and from different events. We might think of a working woman coming home from the office, or even a mother at home with a newborn. Would it surprise you to know that the idea of motherhood has changed over time?
There are two stereotypes currently dominating the idea of the ideal mother: soccer moms and supermoms. Soccer (or hockey, basketball, or other hobby-supporting) moms have a large vehicle full of kids and equipment and they go from plays and practices to games and recitals. There is also the supermom, who works 60 hours a week and still has another 40 for her kids.
In the ’70s we were introduced to child-rearing experts. They gave us the latest and greatest that science had to offer. Dr. Spock was a predominate example. This came as a reaction to the mother-knows-best attitude of the early 20th century, which, in itself, was a response to patriarchal child raising, where the mother deferred to the father to make sure her “womanly disposition” didn’t damage the child.
In early centuries, a well-to-do woman would not lower herself to raise a child — such tasks were for the help while a lady went to dinner parties. And throughout the Dark Ages, a child was thought of as a little demon who had to be restrained until they were able to behave.
In ancient Rome, being a mother raised your social capital and marked a closer tie to your husband’s family and distancing of your own. (But if you could afford it, you’d have someone else raise the kid.)
The Greeks had a yearly celebration for mothers. It was a spring festival dedicated to the goddess Rhea. Mothers in Ancient Egypt were also well-regarded — several mothers of pharaoh were the real power behind the throne.
But is mothering confined to human culture? Do other animals do it? Chimpanzees have the longest childhood of the animal kingdom. A baby can stay with its mother for up to seven years. Elephants, which have the longest pregnancy at 22 months and some of the largest babies at 250 lbs, use the herd to help raise a baby, with the other females working together as babysitters.
And motherhood is not confined to mammals.The alligator is noted as a caring mother. The temperature of the nest determines whether the babies will be boys or girls, so the alligator knows in advance what color onesies to get. After hatching, the mother will carry her babies around in her mouth and protect them from other animals.
A mother octopus will spend months hovering around her 50,000 to 2,000,000 eggs to protect them from predators and to make sure enough water goes by to provide enough oxygen. During that time, she’ll not leave the eggs even to get food and resorts to ingesting an arm or two. We should at least give her a hand.
Earwigs, one of my least favorite insects, are also caring mothers. Instead of just laying her eggs and leaving, she will hang around and keep her eggs warm and fungus-free. She will stay for months after they hatch and continue to provide safety and substance.
If mammals, reptiles, and even insects mother, what part of mothering is cultural? Is it a genetic need to make sure that our progeny survive? Which parts are nature and which nurture? Join us on April 2 at 6:30 p.m. and hear Dr. Robert Martin from The Field Museum talk about the evolution of mothering.
WHAT: HMNS Distinguished Lecture, “Evolution of Mothering: The Natural Heritage from our Deep Mammalian Past” WHO: Robert Martin, Ph.D., Field Museum WHEN: Tuesday, April 2, 6:30 p.m. WHERE: HMNS Main, 5555 Hermann Park Dr., Houston, TX 77030 HOW MUCH: $18
Mammals, whose name comes from the Latin “mamma” for teat, are defined by suckling. Mothering began 200 million years ago with the first mammals and developed to become a hallmark of ancestral primates. Taking evidence from anthropology, archaeology and genetics, this presentation reviews the long evolutionary trajectory of human mothering. Reconstructing that history throws light on the natural basis for our own maternal behavior and highlights sources of problems encountered by modern mothers.
Dr. Robert Martin is curator of biological anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago. He has devoted his career to exploring the evolutionary tree of primates, as summarized in his 1990 textbook Primate Origins. Dr. Martin is particularly interested in reproductive biology and the brain, because these systems have been of special importance in primate evolution. His research is based on broad comparisons across primates, covering reproduction, anatomy, behavior, paleontology and molecular evolution. The Leakey Foundation Lecture Series is sponsored nationally by Wells Fargo Bank and locally by The Brown Foundation, Inc.
Watch Dr. Martin speak about his work and experience as a biological anthropologist below:
