#uppsala museum

[swedebeast]

A mummy is returned... to Sweden.

A 3,200 year old mummy sarcophagus is being moved from Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to the Uppsala University Museum after it was discovered it had been sold using forged documents in 1985, and the artifact had disappeared from Uppsala's collection in the 1970's.

"It is very gratifying that this return has now come to pass. The sarcophagus is an excellent complement to our Egyptian collections and will now be available for research. It needs some restoration, however, and it will be some time before it can be shown to the public in Gustavianum,” says Mikael Ahlund, Museum Director of Gustavianum, or Uppsala University Museum.

Link.

[hsundholm]

A River Overcast by Henrik Sundholm Via Flickr: One of the numerous photogenic views in Uppsala, Sweden.

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Egyptian mummy by Celeste Lindell on Flickr.

This is one of the "yellow coffins" of the 21st Dynasty. A time of change, it's got its own style of coffins and papyri, heavy on images. In the centre of this one you can see the figure I've nicknamed "the Gentleman", snake-headed, bearded, and plumed, holding two knives -- at least, until I figure out who he is! He is worshipped by Nephthys. At the Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala. (ETA: Wait. Is he wearing a dress?)

ETA: On the funerary papyrus of Nespeheran, the Gentleman is called Maaty, "the Righteous One", and comes from Thinis.

[kommabortsig]

Gamla_Uppsala,historiskt_centrum-KMB-_16000300033778.jpg

[randomswedish]

Gustavianum öppnar igen

[ivomagus]

[scavengedluxury]

IBM computer in Uppsala, Sweden, 1963.

(The Upplands Museum)

[yeoldegodzilla]

These Viking longships with Godzilla carved into the prow have been restored and reside in the Godzilla in the Viking World museum in Uppsala.

[random-brushstrokes]

Lotte Laserstein - Woman and violinist (1933-35)

Lotte Laserstein, was born in East Prussia 1898, her father died in 1902 and she grew up with her mother and grandmother in present Gdansk and Berlin. In 1927, she completed her education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin and immediately received great appreciation for her portraits depicting young, modern women in the Weimar Republic. When the Nazis took over in 1933, her promising career was interrupted since she at the time was categorized as Jewish due to her grandparents (not her parents) where Jews. An exhibition at the Galerie Moderne in Stockholm in 1937 gave her the opportunity to leave her home country. She later became a Swedish citizen and stayed in Sweden for good, first living in Stockholm and later in Kalmar. In 1987, her artistry was highlighted at two prestigious galleries in London, it was the beginning of an international rediscovery. In 2003, she also received renewed attention in Germany through an exhibition at the Museum Ephraim-Palais in Berlin. "Meine einzige Wirklichkeit" was the theme of the Berlin exhibition, a quote from Lotte Laserstein who saw art as the reality she lived in and for. Then came the rediscovery in Sweden, first a memorial exhibition at Kalmar Museum in 2004, then at the Jewish Museum and later in Bror Hjorth's house in Uppsala. This work depicts, according to Dr Anna-Carola Krausse, Lotte's friend and muse Traute Rose, the male violinist remains anonymous. The work is most probably executed between 1933-1935. (source)

[blueiscoool]

MFA Boston Returns Stolen Egyptian Child Sarcophagus to Sweden

The coffin was taken from the collection of a museum in Uppsala.

A coffin that was used to bury an Egyptian child named Paneferneb between about 1295 and 1186 B.C.E., which has been in the hands of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston since 1985, has been returned to a museum in Sweden after MFA staff discovered that the piece was stolen from the Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum, around 1970.

The British School of Archaeology in Egypt unearthed the coffin in 1920 at Gurob, Egypt. Overseeing the dig was Flinders Petrie, who, with his wife, Hilda Urlin, excavated numerous important archaeological sites. Among his most significant finds was the Merneptah Stele in 1896; he also discovered the Proto-Sinaitic script, the ancestor of almost all alphabetic scripts, in 1905.

At the time, the Egyptian government had put in place a system of “partage,” or a division of finds, whereby it distributed the results of archaeological excavations between Egypt and the foreign parties sponsoring the digs. As part of that system, the coffin went in 1922 to Uppsala University’s Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, as it was then called. But the sarcophagus, made of pottery and measuring about 43 inches in length, went missing by at least 1970.

The coffin resurfaced in 1985, when the MFA bought it from one Olof S. Liden, who claimed to represent the artist Eric Ståhl. He presented a forged letter in which Ståhl supposedly recounted having excavated the coffin at Amada, Egypt, in 1937. Liden also presented falsified documents authenticating the coffin, purportedly from experts in Sweden. Ståhl, noted the museum in its announcement of the return of the coffin, “is not known to have participated in any excavation in Egypt.”

Curators at the MFA first smelled a rat upon finding a photograph of the coffin in the process of excavation in the 2008 book Unseen Images: Archive Photographs in the Petrie Museum, which noted that it went to Uppsala. When they noted the discrepancy, they contacted the staff at the Gustavianum, and the process of returning the piece began; the museum’s website stated that it was deaccessioned in October.

“It has been wonderful working with our colleagues in Uppsala on this matter, and it is always gratifying to see a work of art return to its rightful owner,” said Victoria Reed, senior curator of provenance at the MFA. “In this case, we were fortunate to have an excavation photograph showing where and when the coffin was found, so that we could begin to correct the record. Anytime we deaccession and restitute a work of art from the museum, it serves as a good reminder that we need to exercise as much diligence as possible as we build the collection.”

The MFA Boston’s department of the art of ancient Egypt, Nubia, and the Near East includes some 65,000 artifacts, including sculpture, jewelry, coffins, mummies, mosaics, and more, placing it among the world’s largest collections of such items, along with institutions like the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza and London’s British Museum. The Gustavianum houses a collection of about 5,000 examples.

By Brian Boucher.

[balloons-and-shadows]

* Swedish Culture *

As my exchange semester is coming to an end, I want to share with you what learned about Sweden the last 6 months

Trains drive on the left side of the tracks. On dagen H, everyone switched from driving on the left side to the right side, except for trains. Swedes will look at you funny for bringing that up.

On every product there is a detailed description of how each part of the product should be recycled. We need to do that everywhere.

Fika <33333333

There are no rules for biking here. It is chaos. As a Dutch person I'm very confused

Love to the academic quarter that allows me to be 15 minutes late to every lecture

I think Gävlebocken is a tradition we need to keep. Especially the burning part of it.

Why does everything close so early during the weekends??? What am I supposed to do??

Ikea has my heart. And a lot of my money.

Sun setting at 14.30 makes me want to eat dinner so early already

Also, the cold makes my hair literally so static? Does anyone know what to do about it?

I can never live without kanelbullar again

The amount of lactosefree options there are everywhere! Love it!

Swedes will be sitting outside of a café even when it is -2 degrees. I have the utmost respect for them.

Why do you close everything for the winter? What am I supposed to do now??

The Ikea stereotype is no joke. Everything I own is from Ikea. Everything my friends own is from Ikea.

I miss cheap alcohol :(

Where are there random loose chairs and tables in your trains? Where do they come from? Why are they there?

Affordable housing <333

Little kids in their little snowsuits with their little snowboots are the cutest thing ever

In small towns, you can find like 7 different Japanese restaurants. Nothing else tho.

Kötbullar are so cheap. I love them. I buy them all the time.

I need to know, why are you so obsessed with Thailand as a country?? I need answers.

I'm not made to withstand -15 degrees. No Swede bats an eye.

Also, choirs are a very big thing??? I wish I could sing well.

Did I already mention kanelbullar? <33333

People ask you if you've already been to the ABBA museum. You have not. You are also not planning on going. Still, people ask you.

The Vasa Museum is a very controversial topic.

The red barns you see everywhere are painted with animal blood. You like to point that out to everyone who comes to visit you.

You have not seen the sun in days. You live on vitamin D-supplements and nothing else

Icehockey looks 75% of the time like very aggressive flirting. You know, like the kdramas

You are sitting in the bus quietly. There are people checking the tickets. You have a ticket. Suddenly, there are 4 people standing over you checking your ticket. There's only 5 people in the bus.

16.00 is rush hour. That is very early.

People will not move out of the way for you. Not in the supermarket, not on the train or on the pavement. There have been many times I have had to walk on the road because people will not move for you.

What is lingonberry and why do you put it in everything?

Why do your parties start and end so early?? Why is 4.00 considered "late"?

Just like the Vasa museum, Gamla Uppsala is a very controversial topic.

Tiny rocks are strewn over the street to combat the ice and snow. They get stuck in your shoes. There is a tiny rock collection on the floor of the hallway now.

It is -20 degrees Celsius outside. You see a dude wearing kaki shorts.

Tomten has my heart. He is so tiny.

Student discounts <3333

[trickstersmakethisworld]

Uppsala Zoological Museum, 2024

[swedishshieldmaiden]

Went to a small showcasing at Gamla Uppsala today and had a wonderful time. The weapons are replicas of findings from the 7th century, so early viking age. The picture of the helmet and the third pic with the horn, shield buckle etc. was from the museum while the other two pics are from the showcasing and does not belong to the museum. If you haven't visited old Uppsala then I definitely recommend you do!

[bending-sickle]

We Walk Into A Bar

so there's this post which talks about the earliest known example of a bar joke ("x walks into a bar and...") which no one knows or understands the punch line of, if it even has one, since it's a proverb.

it is followed up by selected screencaps of a (now deleted) thread wherein someone claims to have deciphered it all (with - also deleted - linguistic receipts) and figured out the pun.

with me so far?

okay let's go down a rabbit hole.

How We Found Out: https://www.tumblr.com/bending-sickle/723007901258711040

We Know Nothing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_joke

“[Assyriologist Dr. Seraina] Nett suggests that the punchline could be a pun that is incomprehensible to modern readers, or a reference to some figure who was well known at the time but similarly unfamiliar to us today. Gonzalo Rubio, another Assyriologist, cautions that this ambiguity ultimately means it is simply not possible to definitely categorize the proverb as a joke, though he and other scholars like Nett do point to the recurring use of innuendo in such proverbs as indicating that many were indeed intended to be humorous.”

We Know Nothing, Part 2: Podcast Boogaloo

“What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows.” Endless Thread podcast, August 5, 2022 https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2022/08/05/sumerian-joke-one

Hosts: Amory Siverston & Ben Brock Johnson

Guests:

Dr. Seriana Nett (Assyriologist and researcher at the Department of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University, Sweden)

Dr. Gonzalo Rubio (Assyriologist and Associate Professor of Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University, USA)

Dr. Philip Jones (Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections of the Babylonian section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, a.k.a. the Penn Museum, USA).

Excerpts:

Amory: Seraina Nett works at Uppsala University in Sweden, where she studies ancient Mesopotamia, including a region called Sumer and its language Sumerian. She spends a lot of time translating Sumerian, looking for clues about early human development.

[…]

Ben: Seraina was one of several thousands of people who happened upon this joke in March on Reddit and initially on Twitter.

Amory: That’s where the account @DepthsOfWiki posted a screenshot from an unlinked, unnamed Wikipedia page. It reads like this: “One of the earliest examples of bar jokes is Sumerian, and it features a dog.”

[…]

Amory: The humor of the dog-in-a-bar joke was probably related to those Sumerian ways of life, perhaps the middle class or well-off, people with downtime and drinking shekels.

Ben: But while some experts know some things about Sumer, the nuances have been lost, and it’s the nuances that bring jokes to life.

[…]

Seraina: It could have been a pun that we don’t understand. It could have been a reference, I don’t know, to a local politician or some famous figure. So it’s very hard for us to tell.

[…]

Seraina: This proverb is in no way special. It’s part of a larger collection of many, many, many proverbs.

Amory: The bar joke — or proverb — is Number 5.77 in a collection of hundreds of other proverbs about dogs, donkeys, husbands. Some read like sayings. Others like weird short stories. But jokes? Depends on how you see things. Like this other proverb Gonzalo told us:

Gonzalo: It’s something like, “Behold! Watch out! Something that has never occurred since time immemorial; the young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

Ben: Sorry, I’m going to be really dumb for a second.

Amory: I am too because this is—

Ben: I’m not sure I get the joke. Is the joke that the woman would never admit that she farted in her husband’s lap? Or is the joke that the woman always farts in her husband’s lap? And that’s the joke, that we’re suggesting that it’s never happened before.

Gonzalo: I think the joke is precisely the latter. The joke is that it is expected to happen. To set up the joke by saying, “Watch out, this is something that has never happened, not once.” And then the sentence is, well, “The young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

[…]

Seraina: There’s quite a lot of innuendo — things like sexuality or, I don’t know, excrement. For example, one of my favorite ones is, “A bull with diarrhea leaves a long trail.”

[…]

Gonzalo: The word for tavern, “ec-dam,” for us, it conveys the idea of a pub or a bar. But really, in ancient Mesopotamia, a tavern is also a place where sex trade takes place. So it’s a tavern, but you could also translate it as a brothel.

[…]

Seraina: It could have been the dog walks into the bar with his eyes closed; “Let me open this,” as in the eyes. Or open, I don’t know, a door. There is also a word that sounds very similar to one of the words that is a word for female genitalia.

[…]

Ben: There’s another complication, though, because it still doesn’t make sense. Or, at least, we’re not laughing. Plus, the translations are too loose and feel kind of unreliable. We mentioned this to Seraina, who dropped one more tantalizing clue about the clay tablet — or tablets that hold our proverb.

Seraina: So this particular proverb is attested on two different versions of the text. And actually, they’re not identical. So, already, somebody screwed up. One of them is also a little bit broken, so it’s hard to tell.

Amory: This thing that everyone’s struggling to understand: No fricken wonder! Because there are two copies. They’re actually both broken, and they don’t match.

[…]

Ben: These two ancient tablets, he tells us, were etched around 1700 B.C.E. At first, this means nothing to us, really, but Phil explains. By that time, Sumer had actually been overtaken by the Babylonian empire. The culture was pretty similar, except that the Sumerian language had already died out.

Amory: Kids at the time spoke Babylonian, also called Akkadian. Only scribes continued to learn Sumerian. It was considered more dignified — kind of like learning Latin today. Knowing this, it seems now even more likely to us that there are mistakes in the text. For instance:

[…]

Ben: Ignoring the random non-Sumerian word, the dog enters the taverny brothel or brothely tavern. He can’t see a thing. He opens this one. Only, Phil says the word “open” is very similar to the word for “close.”

Phil: I mean, not in this case. I think it obviously means to—. Well? It obviously means to open in this case because they do spell—

Amory: Are you sure?

Ben: Yeah, you sound unsure.

Phil: I think I’m fairly sure because normally, if they mean “to close,” they’ve ended up using a different spelling than this one.

[…]

Amory: But he [Phil] adds that everyone’s missing some very important context about the dog.

Phil: The dog is a specific character type. It’s a guard dog whose job is to keep the wolves from the sheep. And in the proverbs, you know, it’s operating on the basis that it’s a personality type that is fairly brutal and not really to be messed with.

Ben: Interesting. That puts like a whole ‘nother layer on this thing because I feel like I wasn’t making any assumptions about the dog other than its general doggyness.

[…]

Phil: I think usually in proverbs, when they say “this,” it refers to something you’ve already heard in the proverb, not to something new. So I think the idea that he’s opening rooms and revealing, you know, couples in flagrante doesn’t quite go with how I would see the word “this” functioning. So I did wonder whether this is more the idea that letting the guard in negates his use because, basically, he wants to see out, he’s going to open the door, and so everybody else outside the tavern can now see in. I mean, I think that’s a legitimate way of looking at it.

Ben: Phil covers the old clay. We wistfully shuffle out. And, at this moment, we buy his theory. A brothel’s guard dog is sitting outside the door under the bright Sumerian sun. He’s scaring away unwelcome Peeping Toms. But then he leaves his post.

Amory: He goes inside, and his eyes aren’t used to the dark, so he can’t see anything. He opens the front door again, propping it to let in a little light. Now, outside, all those Toms are looking in, seeing their politicians and neighbors in flagrante, as Phil said. The guard dog messed up. Get it?

Reddit Redux: User serainan (Seraina Nett) To The Rescue

1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/tbgetc/this_bar_joke_from_ancient_sumer_has_been_making/

"We usually translate the word esh-dam as 'tavern'. Yes, they are associated with prostitution, but it is not primarily a brothel. There is eating and drinking and sex. So, the joke could be sexual, but doesn't necessarily have to be.

The verb ngal2--taka4 in its basic meaning means 'to open' without any sexual connotation. However, there's a noun gal4-la that sounds similar and means 'vulva', so there could be some double-entendre there...

Essentially, the interpretation of the proverb depends on the demonstrative 'ne-en' 'this' and what it refers to – grammatically, I'd agree with you and say it seems to refer to the eye, but there's really no way of knowing for sure.

The problem with jokes is really that they are so culture-specific. Maybe this joke makes fun of a local politician or it is using a very crude word that is not otherwise attested in our sources (written texts, particularly in ancient cultures, of course only cover a limited part of the vocabulary).

Bottom line: We don't get the joke! ;) ”

The Unknown and Deleted: A Story in Four Sources

1 - https://twitter.com/lmrwanda/status/1505648702119202823?t=IHkQWeElTa0T63o3lbr12Q&s=19

2 - https://twitter.com/lmrwanda/status/1505646738627088389?t=06aHTTZkf1ZaJyCDhWUzTg&s=19

3 - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/subversive-walex-kaschuta-1979505/episodes/lin-manuel-rwanda-the-twilight-158022618

4 - http://im1776.com/author/lin-manuel

There was one person on Twitter claiming the joke was, “A friendly dog walks into a bar. His eyes do not see anything. He should open them.” Or “He should crack one open.” (1) They add “It’s a ‘man walks into a bar and hurts his head’ tier dad joke, basically. The ‘pun’ in Sumerian is centered on the fact that the verb ‘to see’ also literally means ‘open (one’s) eye’.” This was at the end of a long word-by-word translation thread (which I can’t judge the quality of, and no other experts were chiming in) dated March 20, 2022 (2). I did not save the thread and Twitter is saying the page doesn’t exist anymore, so that’s a dead end now.

I hesitate to trust this source because I can’t find any of their qualifications (are they an assyriologist? A linguist? A candlestick maker?) and other experts in the field do not seem aware of this (if true) ground-breaking cracking of the highly-debated pun. (Dr. Seraina Nett’s gave an interview five months after this thread was made, and still called the actual pun a mystery.) I could only find out that their Twitter name is “Lin-Manuel Rwanda, @lmrwanda, Epistemic trespasser” and that, according to the podcast Subversive w/ Alex Kaschuta (December 14, 2022) (3), they are “a Twitter poster” with essays on the online magazine IM-1776, where they are credited as “Lin Manuel” (4). (Their introduction in the podcast also reveals they are a British national and resident, but the host is  very coy about revealing even that. Lin Manuel corrects them, adding that they are “half Rwandan”, which explains the Twitter name. I am not listening to the whole hour and a half to look for more clues.)

[thespiritofvexation]

some thoughts on Vikings Valhalla S.1

This intro is unworthy of Vikings👎

I like the greenlanders. They're all gonna die (except the 2 important ones I guess)

Frejdis' revenge👌 good for her!

Actually yelled out loud for them to bring that damn bridge down already

Uppsala!♡ my old hometown for a time. It sure has changed but it has a vikingage museum, burial mounds and stuff

Loving the man on man combat scenes👍

Oh HI Søren Pilmark!🥰 I thought Ragnar killed you that one time you brought news of the destruction of the english settlement?!

That reminds me I should watch the new season of Riget (The Kingdom). Loved that show

Frejdis sounds so damn swedish, I bet the actress is from Stockholm😔

Algwgfhiy is truly the most keysmash-name

There's not one truly sad, pathetic, raddled little man or woman in this show, who am I supposed to favour above all else?

Why am I always so indifferent to the english court political plots. Give me Norway, I'm pining for the fjords!

Harald sneaking out instead of telling anyone his plans is such a Ragnar thing to do. I bet Ingrid's kid was Björn's and not Harald Finehair's. Say what you will about Finehair but he wasn't afraid to tell anyone his plans

Well I mean "not my vikings" but also yes I definitely will start on season2 right away

[thecondemnedangelgabriel]

Abbreviated Exhibitions CV

O

My Career has been disrupted for thirteen years by the Invasive Gangstalking brought by the Ringleader and Paedophile Ring Internet Criminal SARAH TREGONNING...

That began covertly in 2011 with threats commencing in September 2013...

I began writing The Impossible in 2014... and making it public in order to bring Justice, Defend Self and Children and SAVE LIVES in the Winter of 2015...

I have been in and out of Physical and Digital Hiding since 2013

The Impossible is a groundbreaking contemporary artwork which is multidisciplinary and A LIVED ARTWORK...

It is a body of work which takes place and exists offline and online and on Multiple Planes

Holy Opus O V

In February 2019 I was forcibly possessed by the Fallen Archangel Gabriel who desired to use a Holy Goddess's Body, Life and Soul as an Instrument of its own expressions...

This is a Forbidden and Condemned Act from a Fallen Lunic Angel

Angels Inspire ALL SOULS V

Exhibitions Include:

TATE MODERN Tweet Me Up August 2012 (25><28 collaboration)

ABC GALLERY Moscow Infinite Longing May- June 2006

TATTON PARK BIENNIAL Manchester Sep 2008

ICA London April 2005

FACT Liverpool March 2005

PHOENIX ARTS Leicester March 2005

SIDE CINEMA Newcastle March 2005

CASTLEFIELD GALLERY Manchester Feb 2005 / Nov 2004

G39 Cardiff  If You Build It They Will Come Aug 2008

CYWAITH CYMRU Cardiff, Say A Little Prayer May 2006

MAC Birmingham March 2006

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES Cardiff Dec 2005

CHAPTER Cardiff Experimentica Nov 2000

MRC Centenary at BAY ART  How The Light Gets In  July 2013

GOAT MAJOR PROJECTS The Witching Hour  Oct/Nov 2012

ART IN THE WAREHOUSE  The Crying Counsellor (performance)  Dec 2012

Film Festivals:

Fresh Film Festival (Winner of Best Live Action Drama)

International Welsh Film Festival, Cardiff

Clermont-Ferrand, France

Festival L’Etrange, Paris

Int’l Short Film Festival Kracow, Poland

Critics Fortnight (Cannes), France

Cinema Jove, Valencia, Spain

Vila Do Conde Short Film Festival, Portugal

Melbourne Int’l Film Festival, Australia

Sao Paulo Int’l Film Festival, Brazil

Molodist Int’l Festival, Kiev, Ukraine

Cork Int’l Film Festival, Ireland

Uppsala International Film Festival, Sweden

Puchon, Korea

Almeria Short Film Festival, Spain

Dead by Dawn Film Festival, Scotland

Umea International Film Festival, Sweden

Berlin Interfilm Festival, Germany

Leeds International Film Festival, England

V