#i found him

[cookinguptales]

So back when I was much younger and much newer, I took a class at UChicago on ancient Egypt. This was so exciting for me, especially because UChicago has an extensive collection of artifacts from the ancient Near East -- which meant that we got to learn using actual artifacts.

It wasn’t that unusual for us to be sent off to the Oriental Institute to translate something as homework, and one of the things I remember vividly was this (partially restored) fragment of a tomb wall.

In ancient Egypt, names were important, and so was memory. The continued existence of the soul was associated with the continued existence and memory of a person’s name, which is one reason why we have all of these beautiful carved monuments to this day. They wanted to write their names down. They wanted to be remembered. They knew that they could live forever as long as they lived in one person’s memory.

But tombs are expensive. They take a lot of time, a lot of resources, a lot of work. It’s a lot easier to just scratch out one person’s name and replace it with your own. A lot of memorials were repurposed in this way, sometimes because they were actively trying to erase one person’s memory and sometimes simply in an effort to maintain their own. So there was a very real anxiety about tomb desecration and name erasure that comes up again and again and again.

That was what we’d learned about in class that day, but I didn’t know why this wall fragment was our homework until I finished translating it.

I remember sitting there, huddled over my notebook as I crouched on the floor of the OI, sixteen years old and just beginning to learn the world. I remember painstakingly copying the inscription and then translating it to the best of my ability. And then I remember giggling as quietly as I could, not wanting to bother the other guests, when I realized it basically said, “HAHA, I MADE IT SO YOU CAN’T ERASE THIS.”

You see, he’d invented a technique that involved filling the carvings with a certain kind of colored paste. It was very, very difficult to completely remove -- and he was right. No one had managed to do it.

I remember sitting there on the floor and laughing and thinking to myself that humans don’t change, not really. We don’t ever, ever change. Our beliefs might and our goals might, but people? Our souls can traverse millennia.

Because over four thousand years had passed but I still felt this odd connection to a man whose pride in his own ingenuity had made me laugh. 

This all happened around fifteen years ago and I no longer remember how to read this wall. But you know what I do remember? His name.

I remember you, Nefermaat.

#I FOUND HIM #I found a site that talked about this exact wall fragment #so I decided to turn it into a post and share it with you #so you can remember him too #and his wife Itet at that #I ended up switching majors because I realized that I had ethical concerns with the discipline #and I felt complicit in things like imperialism and grave robbing #but I still remember this guy :) #ancient egypt

[enzie-ki]

OOC:

I found it.

it's real

#autism #autism creature #i found him #he is real #ooc post #ooc #ooc tag

[graaaaceeliz]

In an unremarkable corner of the unremarkable display case 24 of room 56 in the British Museum sits THE tumblr artefact:

Cuneiform tablet complaint from Nanni to Ea Nasir, ~1750BC (~3773 years old).

#ea nasir #i found him #i saw this with my own eyes #british museum

[gracethyomen]

@bellaxgiornata proof of daredevil water that for some reason didn’t post with my reboot

#daredevil #matt murdock #daredevil water #FUCKING FINALLY #I FOUND HIM #IVE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS MOMENT

[moricodex]

#doc ock #doctor octopus #otto octavius #UwU #I found him #Just a lil guy

[alwaysreading2027]

Fellow SOC fans-

I found Pekka Rollins

It seems he has inserted himself into the American education system.

Someone tell Kaz

#six of crows #kaz brekker #pekka rollins #I found him #so this is where he went after inej threatened him #texas a&m university

[room-on-broom]

Today you have been blessed with a tiny plastic ray.

#i found him #sweeping out the car park at work #a friend

[dazzlerazz]

#I found him #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #I'm just watching a playthrough don't mind me

[rainypebble07]

Everyone else at the antique store: ah, what a cool little painting

Me, an avid byler supporter: paladin mike paladin mike paladin mike paladin mike paladin mike

#byler #stranger things #mike Wheeler #paladin mike #it’s him #I found him

[dumbass-bee]

#I FOUND HIM

[fangbangerghoul]

I finally picked up bg3 back up after being off of it for a week and some change.

AND I FINALLY FOUND HIM

I'm mad because I literally found him 5 minutes into playing so this whole past week of me brooding was for nothing. I just had to keep going the direction I was 😭

I went all the way to the Underworks? To realize I went to far and had to turn around cause I literally did not complete any of the quests I needed to and thankfully a friend was like you are very close to not being able to finish them.

This game is kind of brutal and I've definitely had to look up a few things.

I'm still enjoying it though.

#Bg3 #Personal #Fang plays #I found him

[worldlydesiretemple]

HEY! BITCH!!

#i FOUND HIM #sso #star stable online

[pharaohgargamel]

Я встретил Папу Смурфа! I met Papa Smurf!

(Original English)

(Перевод через Гугл переводчик)

#топ #top #the smurfs #смурфики #гаргамель #gargamel #тикток #tiktok #papa smurf #переписка #correspondence #прикол #я нашел его! #i found him #папа смурф

[waytoobsessed]

MY CHILD

#KIT!!! #I FOUND HIM #YIPPEEE

[clingyduoapologist]

👍

Soap your literally a goddesss thabks

#I FOUND HIM #asks

[ljfoxie]

I FOUND GREG!!!

#ts4 werewolves #ts4 Greg #I found him