Grant Approved

My application to the Bridging the Gaps Fund at Swansea University for Experimental Breakage of Clay Cobra Figurines: Ritual or Accident? (a collaborative project including Egyptology and Engineering at Swansea University and Ceramicists at Swansea Metropolitan) has been approved.

So, this summer we shall be firing the clay cobras that were made at the Experiment and Experience: Ancient Egypt in the Present conference May 2010. Because they were made in a workshop by a variety of people with a range of skill, many have already broken while hardening. The fragments and complete pieces will be fired in a single batch. We expect that they will explode, but we will collect all the fragments.

We will also have ceramicists make 40 cobras based on the dimensions and form of those found in Egypt (I have selected examples from Sais, Kom Firin, and Amarna as the basis). Because so few complete figures have been found, the ceramicists will create a complete version based on the fragment images and dimensions. Because most of the cobras found do not have any protuberances, and because it is those 'naked' ones that have been said to be ritually broken, the model we will use will also be bare. These will be fired, and then broken by the Engineering department by various means to see if there are specific diagnostic patterns to the fractures.

Whew, fun!