Month: March 2018
Curator’s Diary March 2018: Flowers reunited with mummy of Perenbast
It is something of a love story: a man and woman (perhaps husband and wife) buried together for almost 3000 years. Their small tomb chamber at Dra Abu el Naga, on the west bank of Thebes, was excavated by W.M. Flinders Petrie’s workers in 1908-1909.
Both individuals were provided with a single coffin, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figure, and boxed shabtis. In a trend particularly prevalent during the Third Intermediate Period, floral material was left on both mummies. As part of the finds division system, one mummy (belonging to a temple singer named Perenbast) and her associated objects were sent to Manchester and those of her companion (‘Mr Perenbast’) sent to Bristol.
Some 10 years ago, while working on their new Egyptian gallery, Bristol Museum World Cultures curator Sue Giles recognised that their mummy had been provided with several flowers covered in black resin – when there was no resin on…
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Marie Stopes re-assessed: reluctant Mancunian, sexual revolutionary, birth control pioneer
Our very own Honorary Researcher Dr. Clare Debenham will be giving a talk about the life and impact of Marie Stopes at Manchester Museum on:
Saturday 10th of March 2018, book your ticket on Eventbrite!
Marie Stopes studying plant fossils now in Manchester Museum
Image courtesy of John Rylands Library
Marie was controversial in her lifetime, but since the Second World she has been maligned both in the academic world and in the popular press. Now is the time to re-assess her achievements. This talk offers a frank appraisal.
Marie Stopes was the first female lecturer at the University of Manchester and worked on the Museum’s fossil plant collection. Her book, Married Love was published 100 years ago and became an immediate best seller as capturing the mood of the age. The enthusiastic response to Married Love encouraged Marie to set up the country’s first birth control…
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Coffee or tea, madam?
It’s rather strange to think about it, but I suppose I have been living through something of a revolution in hot drinks in the UK. Traditionally, we are considered to be a nation of tea drinkers, but now on my way to work, I suspect that the majority of travel mugs clutched by my fellow commuters contain a more stimulating coffee instead. In 2008, the UK started to import more tonnes of coffee (green and roasted) than tea. Of course, you get more cups out of a kilo of tea than you do out of a kilo of coffee, but the upward trend for coffee importation continues (FAOSTAT).
It used to be that the nearest my coffee drinking came to any kind of ceremony was if I happened to be the lucky person who got to pop the seal on a new jar of instant. Now, however, even if there isn’t a gadget in the kitchen, then there’s ususally a coffee shop nearby to provide you with your morning ritual and your perfect brew. In 17th and 18th century London and Oxford, coffeehouses were also the place for men to go and read the news, make financial deals, reason about academic subjects and perhaps even discuss something a little seditious. By the end of the 18th century, these coffeehouses had all but disappeared. Many factors have been suggested for their decline, including that printed news was easier to come by, and the development of gentleman’s clubs. Tea drinking was on on the rise as it became fashionable at court, as women could participate in a way that they couldn’t in coffeehouses, and of course, through the promotional of the British East India Company’s trading interests in tea from China and particularly from India. Names such as Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Kangra and Niligri became familiar in the UK through the tea gardens established there by the British in the 19th century.
Easier to prepare, tea remained the hot drink of choice in the UK for about two centuries providing warmth, comfort and calories (with milk and sugar) with every cup. Many countries favour either tea or coffee at the expense of the other, and in the UK a 2012 YouGov poll still showed more people still rate a cuppa as their favourite hot drink (52% tea/ 35% coffee). The coffee shop sector is one of the strongest businesses in the UK economy, turning over £9.6 billion in 2017. So when you next get to the counter of a coffee shop, what will it be – coffee or tea?
Further reading
https://publicdomainreview.org/2013/08/07/the-lost-world-of-the-london-coffeehouse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_the_17th_and_18th_centuries
David Grigg (2002). The Worlds of Tea and Coffee: Patterns of consumption. GeoJournal 57; 283-294
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea_in_India
https://www.teacoffeespiceofindia.com/tea/tea-origin
Herbology Manchester 