Stalked like an Egyptian
QUESTION
After the death of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut, many of her monuments were destroyed. Which other historical leaders were erased from memory?
The process of erasing the memory of a former ruler is described by the Latin term damnatio memoriae — a condemnation of memory. This was highly significant in a culture where legacy was all-important.
It involved the defacement of statues, portraits and written records. More than 25 emperors were known to be victims, including the tyrants Caligula and Nero.
This has resulted in a lack of contemporary evidence and has left their reputations open to wild, unprovable accusations, such as Caligula’s plan to make his favourite horse Incitatus a consul or even his wife.
A striking example comes from the reign of Caracalla, a member of the Severan dynasty who ruled from 211 to 217. he was co-emperor with his younger brother Geta, whose assassination he arranged.
Geta’s visage was struck from coins and it was a capital offence to speak his name. Archaeological evidence of his existence has been found only at the outskirts of the Roman empire.
In egyptian culture, each new pharaoh sought to prove himself the superior of his predecessor, often at the cost of erasing the memory of the former ruler.
Queen hatshepsut came to the throne in 1478 BC. As the principal wife of Thutmose II, she first ruled as regent to her stepson, the two-year old Thutmose III. however, she usurped the throne, ruling for 20 years.
She is known to have worn a false beard to indicate she had the authority of a male pharaoh.
When Thutmose III eventually took the throne, it has been claimed he had all inscriptions of hatshepsut removed, her statues walled up or destroyed and her name erased from history.
however, modern archaeological evidence suggests much of this destruction came a century later during the Amarna period, a time of upheaval.
Another pharaoh who suffered damnatio memoriae was Akhenaten, thought to have reigned from 1353 to 1336 BC. he is remembered for introducing the
monotheistic worship of the god Aten. he condemned the pantheon of egyptian gods and suppressed the worship of the sun god Amun-Ra.
After his reign, people blamed their misfortunes on his apostasy. Temples to Aten were dismantled, images of Akhenaten were demolished and references to Amun-Ra reappeared.
Modern examples of damnatio memoriae can be found following Stalin’s purges. Leon Trotsky, Nikolay Yezhov, the architect of the Great Purge, and Lavrentiy Beria, the perverted head of the NKVD, or interior ministry, were expunged from the Great Soviet encyclopaedia following their fall from grace.
Graeme Allinson, Keswick, Cumberland.
QUESTION Why do we say dodgy tradesmen are cowboys?
JoNAThAN SWIfT first used the word cowboy in print in 1725, referring to a young cowherd tending cattle for his family and neighbours.
In the U. S., where Spanish- style ranches meant herds of cattle covered vast distances in search of forage, the work was done by an adult on horseback, but the term cowboy stuck.
The word was first used pejoratively during the American Revolution to mean a rustler stealing cattle and supplying them to the British.
During the 1880s, a gang smuggling cattle, alcohol and tobacco across the US./Mexico border were known as The Cowboys. This led the San francisco examiner newspaper to describe cowboys
as ‘the most reckless class of outlaws’ and the word became synonymous with horse thief or robber, tarnishing the reputation of those who worked honestly.
Wild West shows portrayed cowboys fighting off Native Americans and hollywood movies emphasised their raucous and violent behaviour in saloon bars.
In the 1920s, cowboy came to mean reckless or irresponsible. Newspapers wrote about cowboy motorists and accused politicians of cowboy diplomacy.
Tradesmen who work dangerously or shoddily, overcharge or are unreliable are also described as cowboys.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION Who invented air conditioning?
The U.S. engineer Willis haviland Carrier is credited with the invention of air conditioning in 1902, but there were two notable earlier innovations.
In 1758, U.S. founding father and inventor Benjamin franklin and John hadley, a Cambridge University professor, discovered that alcohol evaporates faster than water and has a cooling effect.
In 1851, physician John Gorrie from florida was granted Patent No. 8080 for a machine that used compression to create ice. he was a specialist in tropical diseases and believed the cooling effect of fanning air over ice would alleviate the symptoms of his patients.
Willis Carrier’s system was developed for Sackett & Wilhelms Lithography and Printing Company in Brooklyn, New York, to address quality problems with their presses due to humidity.
fluctuations in heat and humidity in the plant kept causing the dimensions of the printing paper to alter and create misalignment of the inks.
Carrier’s system sent air through coils filled with cold water, cooling the air while at the same time removing moisture to control room humidity.
his machine created a stable environment and, as a result, aligned four-colour printing became possible.
Carrier was awarded a patent for Apparatus for Treating Air in 1906, the first of many. he established the Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America in 1915.
The company developed the first residential Weathermaker in 1928, an air conditioner for private home use.
Mrs Katie Thomas, Frome, Somerset.