Being the unabashed history nerd that I am, of course I had to rope Vicky Alvear Shecter (author of the wonderful Cleopatra’s Moon, and a docent at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia) into a year-end round-up – and here it is the Shecter Over/Under of 2012!
Overlooked Historical Finds That Would Make Great Novels
When I wrote Cleopatra’s Moon, I was fascinated by the fact that so few people knew that Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony had a daughter. Or that she was the only one of the queen’s four children to survive to adulthood. Or even that the face of the Statue of Liberty was supposedly modeled after a sculpture made of this fascinating young woman named Cleopatra Selene.
I love nothing more than being surprised by some nugget of history. So, in light of that and of Katie’s “under/over” series, here are some overlooked archaeological nuggets of mystery that I think would make great stories:
Seriously, what happened to this young couple? They were found in Italy and have been dated to about 5,000 years ago. So who were these stone-age lovers? Did they commit suicide or where they killed? Why were they buried together? I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!
So will somebody write this story already?
(Want to learn more about these star-crossed lovers? You can start here.)
There are papyrus accounts of wives in the pharaoh’s harem who were plotting to stage a coup, likely in favor of some stage mother’s precious prince. Recent unwrappings of his mummy have shown that Ramses III had his throat cut. Talk about bedroom politics.
So who was the harem beauty that dared to kill the divine pharaoh? Why? Was it a moment of passion or a calculated political move? Won’t somebody put me out of my misery and write this story?
(Want to learn more about this Egyptian murder-mystery? You can start here.)
Who left the scraping tool inside this mummy’s head?
The poor woman. Here she was, getting her body cleaned out and gussied up for her eternal life as a mummy and some fool leaves a scraping tool inside her head! Poor dear is likely to suffer terrible migraines in the hereafter.
But seriously, how does a mistake like that happen? Was it an apprentice priest/embalmer who made a mistake and then didn’t fix it because he didn’t want to get caught? Or maybe it was something more sinister – perhaps a curse? Either way, what if her ka now haunts him? And…and what if they fall in love – ka to ka? Oh, the possibilities.
There are lots of overlooked ancient discoveries that deserve being revived as stories. That’s the thing about history – you never run out of writing prompts. It’s endlessly fascinating!
I didn’t know that about the statue of liberty! Wowsa. And yes on the lovers. I haven’t been able to get that image out of my head. WHAT is their story!??? :) e