ML137966
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Kent Weeks. Timecode In: 00:00:05. Timecode out: 00:29:22. Notes: Egyptology. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. NPR Radio Expeditions Egyptology Kent Weeks/ Don Smith DS 00:00:22 Tell me who you are and how you like to be identified. 00:00:24 KW 00:00:25 Well, I¿m Kent Weeks, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and calling me Kent is perfectly fine. DS 00:00:32 Newspaper reporter once identified you as the only living celebrity, what does that mean exactly? ¿ you need to say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers and disregard the last question¿. Mic adjustment DS 00:01:24 A newspaper reporter identified you as the only living celebrity, what was that? 00:01:31 KW 00:01:32 I¿m not sure, I think the only living celebrity in the Valley of the Kings, or something like that. I think it was an AP story. DS 00:01:38 Well how does that feel being a person a lot of people would consider the most famous Egyptologist or archeologist in the world? 00:01:47 KW 00:01:48 Well, in many ways it¿s very flattering. I¿m not quite sure why people feel that way. I admit that we¿ve made some wonderful discoveries in the Valley of the Kings and I would like to think that our project is a very important one but always amazes me is the popularity of Egyptology among a very large general audience. Whoever heard of a Mesopotamian archeologist going on talk shows or somebody interested in the Neolithic of Northern Europe doing that? There¿s something magic about Egypt that attracts people from all walks of life and from all over the world. DS 00:02:22How do you account for that?00:02:23 KW 00:02:24 I¿ve tried to account for it. I¿m not sure how. I think first of all, it¿s a combination. Egyptology has in one way everything that is magical and mystical. We¿ve got mummies, of course, and I think that there¿s a little bit of necrophilia, I suspect, in all of us. We¿ve got pyramids and temples of such size that for thousands of years Europeans could not believe that ordinary mortals could ever have constructed them. They had to be the work of superhuman beings or, well more recently, creatures from outer space. We¿ve got gold and jewels and the excitement of exploration, the thrill of the chase and all these things. And, of course, this is added to by Indiana Jones films, the mummy¿s curse the story of Tutankammen, it¿s got a little bit of everything in there and it really does appeal to a lot of people. DS 00:03:11What first attracted you to it? 00:03:12 KW 00:03:13 I¿ve tried to figure that out, I know that I became interested in Egyptology when I was eight years old and I know that I was fortunate enough to have school teacher, one after the other that not only encouraged the interest but actually had, in their possession a few books on Egyptology that they would lend me. But what the initial impetus was, I don¿t know. Abbott and Costello meet the mummy reading a book about Howard Carter¿s discoveries. I haven¿t a clue, but I know that it was very specific, it wasn¿t archeology, it was ancient Egypt that I was interested in. DS 00:03:43 And it¿s led to you spending quite a few years in Egypt. How many years have you spent in Egypt? 00:03:47 KW 00:03:48 I first went there in the fall of 1963 and have been there ever since on at least an annual month for a month or two. More recently, my wife and I have lived there, well, for the past fifteen years more or less straight through. DS 00:04:01Now I¿ve heard that you sunburn easily. Is that a problem?00:04:05 KW 00:04:07 Strangely enough, it¿s not, if I go to the seashore, yes, it¿s a terrible problem. I¿ve got very light complexion and red hair and I will burn in a matter of two minutes. But it is so dry in Luxor, the humidity is so low that I ... (Notes truncated)
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- 23 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
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- 21 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
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- 23 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman