I used a piece of canvas and dry-brushed it to give it a papyrus texture, then proceeded to sketch and paint in a figure of the Egyptian god Set upon it. I followed the rules of ancient Egyptian art composition, such as skin color and that stiff-legged stance that's become so famous through song--I even did the "backwards hand" thingie the Egyptians were always doing. Then I had to write up the mock news article. Being more inclined toward writing anyway, that was the easiest part. However, it needed to be TYPED, and for some reason I couldn't do this. (This is weird because I thought we had a computer then...maybe we didn't have a printer?) I couldn't get the typewriter to work well for me so I believe my father typed it up.
The following item is that mocked-up news article. As for the painting of Set? It's still around. Last I knew of it, my parents had conspired to frame it for me, and it was given to me as a birthday present some years back.
I still can't quite figure out why I was unable to type this up on the computer. We didn't have the computer when I was in junior high. But I seem to remember working on this art in high school, which would place the date of this writing between 1991-95.
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PAPYRUS HAS BEEN MISSING FOR 70 YEARS.
by Nanette Underwood, Correspondent Special to The London Sun-Times
CHEBOYGAN, MI.- Early last Friday relatives rummaging through the cellar of the deceased Mr. George Featherby discovered an ancient Egyptian papyrus which has been missing for nearly seven decades.
The finding of the papyrus, which is believed to be from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamon, more commonly known as Tut, came as a great yet pleasant surprise to archaeologists.
"We never knew he (Featherby) had the papyrus," Edward Halley, a representative of the Poverty Flats Archaeological Foundation of New York, says. [Note--I swiped the name "Poverty Flats" from something I saw written by my brother. So if this name is in use by anyone else, sorry! I intended to utilize it for my fictional group of archaeologists who were introduced in the unfinished story Edmond & Fredestaire (and who showed up again in The Secret Of The Pyramid).] "We checked the catalogue of the treasures removed from Tutankhamon's tomb and the papyrus was listed there. Yet it was not among the artifacts itself. We assumed that it had been stolen and sold on the black market."
"King Tutankhamon's tomb was opened over seventy years ago in 1922 by British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. It took many years to catalogue the artifacts and remove them, and during that time anyone could easily have stolen a simple papyrus."
George Featherby, a businessman from England, had moved to the county of Cheboygan, Michigan in 1988 to live in a large farmhouse near relatives in Benton Township. He passed away nearly two months ago and only last week were his relatives finally able to search his house for belongings, as his will had been left in England.
"We were digging around through his cellar when we found a long tube, carefully plugged with cotton and sawdust," relates Nancy Caldwell, Featherby's niece. [Note--"Caldwell" was the last name of one of my elementary school teachers.] "We took it to the table and removed the stuffing, then pulled out what appeared to be an old scroll." [Note--the closing quotation marks should not be here.]
"When we unrolled it we saw that it was a painting of a strange donkey-headed person, and indeed very old."
The papyrus was sent to the Poverty Flats Archaeological Foundation in New York, who sent it in turn to Poverty Flat's [sic] headquarters in London.
"There's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this is the real thing," Nathaniel Highcastle, a leading archaeologist with Poverty Flats, states. "Our archaeologists carefully examined the painting and conclude that it is identical in every respect to those of ancient Egypt. The media [sic] used was paint made of natural pigments on papyrus, which was what the Egyptians used as paper. [Note--I should either use the word "medium" (singular), or else modify the sentence to include both the paint and the papyrus as the "media" (plural). Back then, I thought "media" was a singular. Lots of people out there erroneously believe this, in fact.] There is no shading. The head and legs are drawn in profile with the chest and visible eye shown full-face. He (the subject) appears to have two left feet, as the Egyptians drew them, and his right hand is backwards - another oddity typical of ancient Egyptian art. Not only that, but his skin is a dark reddish color - the flesh color used for Egyptian males to distinguish them from females, who had much paler yellow skin and he is dressed in traditional ancient Egyptian clothing, with a symbolic staff, and his hair is styled in the coiffure of the day.
"About the actual discovery of the papyrus, I'm speechless. This is the most remarkable find since King Tut's tomb itself." [Note--cripes, the hyperbole!!]
"We're all rather anxious about this," Halley says. We can
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hardley [sic] wait to have the scroll carbon-dated for authenticity. If it's a fake, the artist did an extremely good job, and ancient papyri don't just turn up everyday [sic].
"However, we all have our proverbial fingers crossed."
The papyrus, which features a likeness of Set, the Egyptian god of darkness, the desert, and evil, will be sent to a scientific laboratory in London for carbon-testing. Then if it proves to be authentic, it will go on temporary display in London, and afterwards shipped to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., where it will be displayed in about the spring of next year. [Note--makes more sense if it would be displayed in Egypt along with Tut's other stuff. I guess "Smithsonian" was the only museum name I knew.]
"I just wonder how Featherby came to acquire the painting," Halley says. "That question will probably never be answered." [Note--more inappropriate closing quotes.]
"But at least now we've got it back."
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