Thursday, March 22, 2007

Rena :: FYPJ Week3 :: Progess post 1

Hmm... this is my first post on my progress for this week.

Since last Friday, I've done some concept sketches for one of the GDD called Second Pet. An example:
I also have a sketch which is used for concept sketch for the other GDD called Curse of the Pharaoh. The colouring for this was done by Jason, because my computer crashed the other day and I couldn't scan in my sketches. So he did the scanning and the colouring. I also contributed to the GDD for Curse of the Pharaoh.

These few days is mainly spent on discussion for the GDDs as well as some background research for the Curse of the Pharaoh. Research so far includes ancient Egyptian myths and curses, egyptian artefacts, mummies and pharaohs, achaeological tools and the bacteria in ancient tombs.

Research on Tomb Curses and Bacteria in Tombs
The most famous event revolving around Egyptian tomb curse has got to be the King Tut Curse.
The Tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered by Howard Carter in November 1922. His explorations were financed by Lord Carnarvon, who attended the tomb’s opening after the discovery. On the day of the opening, Howard Carter’s pet canary was swallowed by a cobra and Cobras, as the goddess Wadjet, were the protectors of the Pharaoh.

Perhaps, this was a coincidence, but this probably inspired Mari Corelli (Mary Mackay), a novelist, to publish a warning in March 1923 that there would be dire consequences for anyone who had entered the sealed tomb.

Weeks after this revelation, Lord Carnarvon died of pneumonia in Cairo on 5th April 1923. It was also said during the moment Lord Carnarvon died, the lights went out in Cairo and his dog, Susie, back in England, howled and died in that instant.

It was also reported that one inscription found on an Anubis shrine stated that:
“It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret chamber. I am for the protection of the deceased”. However, a reporter at that time added his own words to the inscription and other reporters also invented their own curses and reported that they were found in the tomb. These led people to believe that Lord Carnarvon’s death was a result of a “Pharaoh’s curse” and that “Pharaoh’s curse” exists. Even till today, the belief in tomb curses still exists.

However, recent studies showed that some ancient mummies do carry mold, including at least two potentially dangerous species which can cause allergic reactions ranging from congestion to bleeding in the lungs. Ammonia gas, formaldehyde, and hydrogen sulfide have also been found inside sealed sarcophagi. In strong concentrations, these can cause death in extreme cases. These results may explain the death of people who died shortly after entering the tomb.

(http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/curse.htm)

(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0506_050506_mummycurse.html)



Egyptian Myths
This is one of the links to a few of the myths that I have found - The Story of Re. Frankly, after reading it, I got abit blur. But I find this story quite nice. Haha~

(http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythre.htm)



Archaeological Tools
I haven't find a really good website that tells all about the excavation tool. What I have found are in bits and pieces...
Use of GIS in archaeology for mapping of the site: http://www.esri.com/industries/archaeology/index.html
A beginner's guide to archaelogical tools:
http://www.catsco.org.uk/bguide.php


Egyptian Artefact and Mummy
Images from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/photogalleries/king_tut/



Seriously, I got freaked out during the research. I'm interested in curses, mummies, pyramids and stuff but some pictures of mummies just freaked me out totally. And the worse is looking at the pictures of the artefacts and mummies at night... They just seem to look so alive, which is very freaky to me! I'm really timid... lols (highlighting some of the pictures makes them even more errie...=X)

I also found a website that can translate English to some ancient Egyptian language. It's really cool! (Opps, I lost the link. I have it somewhere, but I can't find it now. Will update it next time.)

Hmm... for the rest of the week, I guess I'll continue researching on common symptoms of the different illness, maybe more on archaeological tools. Perhaps, changes to the GDD or ideas if needed. I may also want to try out the SL Importer, to see if it can work well with complex models?

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