Back in October 2014, I initiated e-mail contact with Anne Laking, Head of Specialist Factual at STV Productions, who leads the outfit behind the Tut makeover that featured in the BBC’sTutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXk-NbSWDs8
I was hoping to discuss and document the reconstruction process used...here's how it went:
quote: 21/10/2014
Dear Anne,
Aidan Laverty pointed me in the direction of stv, which is where I think you and Lucy (cc'd in) are based.
I saw a programme you worked on, Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered, mentioned in the Mail Online yesterday, which looks interesting.
If you don't mind, could you tell me who came up with the idea for commissioning the programme.
The Mail article mentioned the geneticist Albert Zink, but it's not completely clear on whether he appears in it. Can you tell me whether he does?
Also, do you know who produced the reconstruction?
Best wishes
quote: 21/10/2014
I’d be happy to talk after the programme airs this weekend. Perhaps you could email me then? Would you mind letting me know the reason for your interest? Anne
quote: 31/10/2014
Hi Anne
Sorry, meant to get back to you earlier in the week.
I saw the programme and found it interesting. The shots of the felucca ride reminded me of when I spent a few days on one and I also liked the reconstruction of Amarna.
Of the three questions I asked last week, the one about whether Albert Zink would be appearing has of course been answered.
The other questions concerned whether you knew who came up with the idea of commissioning the programme, and also who produced the reconstruction of Tutankhamun.
I also wanted to ask whether you yourself had any knowledge of the population backgrounds of the ancient Egyptians.
Best wishes
quote: 10/11/2014
In answer to your questions: The reconstruction was derived form many sources and created as a CGI graphic by our graphic house. The commissioner of the programme was Aidan Laverty; and it was ourselves at STV who came up with the idea. and finally, no, I do not have expert knowledge of the population backgrounds of the Ancient Egyptians. All the very best, Anne
quote: 10/11/2014
Hello Anne
Many thanks for the swift reply.
Thanks for clarifying that the reconstruction was derived from many sources. Is there anything I can read or someone I can contact who can give an overview of how it was done?
Best wishes
No response so a month later:
quote: 09/12/2014
Hi Anne I hope it's not too much of an ask, but I was wondering whether you might be able to help with providing information on the process behind the Tutankhamun reconstruction. As mentioned in my last couple of e-mails, it would be really helpful if there was someone you could put me in touch with, or some information you could send me. Best wishes
quote: 09/12/2014
Thank you for your interest in our programme. I am glad you found the previous information I provided useful. Unfortunately I am flat out with delivery of other programmes at the moment, and because the research team for our Tutankhamun show have all disbanded; I don’t really have time to personally search out get this more detailed information for you; or to call up our contacts to see if they might be happy to talk with you. So I am sorry that I’m unable to help you further, until my workload eases off. Again, many thanks for your interest in the programme. All the very best Anne
On account of her busy schedule, I left it three months before getting back in touch:
quote: 11/03/2015
Hi Anne I hope you're not as busy as when we were last in touch before Christmas! Following on from then, would you perhaps be able to forward my e-mail or cc me in on an introductory message to one or more team members who worked on the Tutankhamun reconstruction. Best wishes
quote: 11/03/2015
As I mentioned in my email before, I am not going to be able to put you in contact with any of our team. I will not be able to help you further. Thank you Anne
Pity that, as the Head of Specialist Factual, she was unable to put me in touch with the team responsible for the reconstruction. Would have been very interesting to have known how they came up with their depiction, particularly the “many sources” used in its creation.
posted
What are you trying to accomplish by posting all these private correspondences on ES? Frankly, this is creeping me out (again).
For that matter, the text of your "inquiries" themselves is worded in a creepy way. It's like you're afraid to directly state your big beef with the Tut reconstruction, so instead you interrogate your correspondents with questions that will make them wonder what the hell you're talking about. Anyone reading your questions is going to wonder what you're up to since you can't be bothered to state that upfront.
Posts: 7069 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by kdolo: 'Anyone reading your questions is going to wonder what you're up to since you can't be bothered to state that upfront.'
It is perfectly obvious what the issue is and she responded.
Nothing 'creepy' about it.
From her point of view, it wouldn't be obvious from simply reading Mr. Coke's inquiries. She probably hasn't even considered the topic of ancient Egyptian population origins and affinities, since that's not her field of expertise. So I seriously doubt that she had any idea what Mr. Coke was getting at when sending her these inquiries.
Posts: 7069 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Nodnarb: She probably hasn't even considered the topic of ancient Egyptian population origins and affinities, since that's not her field of expertise. So I seriously doubt that she had any idea what Mr. Coke was getting at when sending her these inquiries.
shouldn't somebody be responsible for the accuracy of it? They made it look like a very ugly white dude and they did the same trick where the reconstruction is light skinned but they show his face under shadow. It's marketing to sell to the British public, science corrupted
quote: From her point of view, it wouldn't be obvious from simply reading Mr. Coke's inquiries. She probably hasn't even considered the topic of ancient Egyptian population origins and affinities, since that's not her field of expertise. So I seriously doubt that she had any idea what Mr. Coke was getting at when sending her these inquiries.
Yeah, you "seriously doubt it" because you want to...so what of her refusal to put me in touch with her team?
quote: shouldn't somebody be responsible for the accuracy of it? They made it look like a very ugly white dude and they did the same trick where the reconstruction is light skinned but they show his face under shadow. It's marketing to sell to the British public, science corrupted
Well, it seems Lioness got the point...but you chose not to, eh Brandon? Gee, wonder why.
And as for 'creepy'? Please. The racial fetishism in your bizarre cartoons is by far the weirdest, hejeebies-inducing thing on this board. And what's with the dinosaurs?
Oh yeah, and I'll post whatever I please on this site, particularly when it highlights academic bias. I don't give a sh1t if you have a problem with that.
quote:Originally posted by tropicals redacted: Yeah, you "seriously doubt it" because you want to...so what of her refusal to put me in touch with her team?
She didn't "refuse", at least not going by her own words. She simply said she wasn't able to. I realize a paranoid conspiracist like you is going to interpret this as a refusal anyway, but c'mon, do you sincerely think she of all individuals has any control over an (undeniably whitewashed) reconstruction just because she works for the TV company that broadcast the show?
quote:Oh yeah, and I'll post whatever I please on this site, particularly when it highlights academic bias. I don't give a sh1t if you have a problem with that.
Except you're not talking to an academic here. You're talking to an employee at the TV company who broadcast the documentary, one who probably doesn't know jack about the topic of your passion. That's like complaining to some random executive at Universal Studios about the inaccuracy of certain dinosaurs in Jurassic World, when all Universal does is distribute the picture and barely have any input into how the dinosaurs are designed. She really isn't the one you need to contact.
Posts: 7069 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:She didn't "refuse", at least not going by her own words .
Oh please. You know you're full of sh1t, don't you?
I asked her whether there was anything I could read or someone I could contact regarding the process behind the reconstruction. There's no response, so I get back in touch a month later.
She then says she's too busy to contact the team members, and that it would have been too onerous to "call" them-- why not just send them a one sentence e-mail, something like:
"Hi XXXX, would you be able to help a member of the public with questions on the process behind the Tut reconstruction?"
Or
"Hi XXXX, would you be able to give me some info on how you did the Tut reconstruction, sources referred to, etc"?
But of course, as far as I know, this doesn't happen, and she says she doesn't have time. I then contact her again three months later. She replies:
quote: As I mentioned in my email before, I am not going to be able to put you in contact with any of our team. I will not be able to help you further. Thank you Anne
She'd previously said that she was too busy, now she just says that she won't help, with no explanation. And that's not a refusal?
You don't think that's odd coming from the Head of 'Specialist Factual'?
quote: I realize a paranoid conspiracist like you is going to interpret this as a refusal anyway, but c'mon, do you sincerely think she of all individuals has any control over an (undeniably whitewashed) reconstruction just because she works for the TV company that broadcast the show?
Paranoid conspiracist? Explain. Or are you trolling?
But let's look at the rest of your crap in the above quote...are you (deliberately?) missing the point here? It's her refusal to even attempt to put me in touch with her 'team', and facilitate transparency regarding their methods. It suggests to me that she may have had her own doubts around the outfit behind the project, and/or didn't want scrutiny of their methods.
How is that paranoid?
I sense you're trolling, but let's see your responses.
Posts: 805 | From: UK | Registered: Nov 2013
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posted
King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria
quote:
King Tutankhamun died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria, say experts. A team from Hamburg's Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) claim the disease is a far likelier cause of death than the combination of bone disorders and malaria put forward by Egyptian experts earlier this year.
The BNI team argues that theories offered by Egyptian experts, led by antiquities tsar Zahi Hawass, are based on data that can be interpreted otherwise. They say further analysis of the data will confirm or deny their work. Hawass' claim, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this February, and followed by a swarm of accompanying television shows, claimed King Tut suffered from Kohler's disease, a bone disorder prohibiting blood flow, before succumbing to malaria.
Multiple bone disorders, including one in Tutankhamun's left foot, led to the Kohler's diagnosis, while segments of a malarial parasite were found via DNA testing. Yet the BNI team claims the latter results are incorrect. “Malaria in combination with Köhler's disease causing Tutankhamun's early death seems unlikely to us,” say Prof Christian Meyer and Dr Christian Timmann.
Instead the BNI team feels sickle-cell disease (SCD), a genetic blood disorder, is a more likely reason for the Pharaoh's death aged just 19. The disease occurs in 9 to 22 per cent of people living in the Egyptian oases, and gives a better chance of surviving malaria; the infestation halted by sickled cells.
They say the disease occurs frequently in malarial regions like the River Nile, and that it would account for the bone defects found on his body.
“The genetic predisposition for (SCD) can be found in regions where malaria frequently occurs, including ancient and modern Egypt.” says Meyer. “The disease can only manifest itself when a sickle cell trait is inherited from both parents: it is a so-called 'recessive inheritance'.” A family tree for the Pharaoh suggested by Hawass himself appears to back the BNI team's case.
The relatively old age of Tutankhamun's parents and relatives – up to 50 years – means they could very well have carried sickle-cell traits, and could therefore have been highly resistant to malaria. The high likelihood that King Tut's parents were siblings means he could have inherited the sickle cell trait from both and suffered from SCD.
“Sickle-cell disease is an important differential diagnosis: one that existing DNA material can probably confirm or rule out,” conclude Timmann and Meyer. They suggest that further testing of ancient Egyptian royal mummies should bear their conclusions in mind.
King Tut's young demise has long been a source of speculation. As well as malaria, recent decades have seen scholars argue that he was murdered, and that he died from infection caused by a broken leg.
quote:King Tutankhamen, Egypt’s boy king, was killed by the inherited blood disorder sickle-cell disease – not malaria. So says a German team in what appears to be the best shot yet at solving the mystery of the pharaoh’s early demise.
From falling off a chariot to murder by poison, the cause of Tutankhamen‘s death has been a source of avid speculation since his mummified youthful remains were discovered in 1922. He was 19 when he died around 1324 BC after ruling for just nine years.
The first extensive scientific investigation of the mummy was reported by Egypt’s chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass and colleagues earlier this year (JAMA, vol 303, p 638). After running a battery of tests, including X-rays and genetic analysis, they concluded that an inherited bone disorder weakened the king, before an attack of malaria finished him off.
Key pieces of evidence were severe necrosis in the bones of Tutankhamen’s left foot, and the detection of genes from Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria.
But in a letter to JAMA this week, Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, suggest that Hawass’s observations can be explained much more elegantly by a diagnosis of sickle cell disease (SCD).
Early death
People with SCD carry a mutation in the gene for haemoglobin which causes their red blood cells to become rigid and sickle-shaped. A single copy of the sickle-cell gene confers increased immunity to malaria, so it tends to be common in areas where the infection is endemic – such as ancient Egypt. People with two copies of the gene suffer severe anaemia and often die young.
Timmann and Meyer point out that SCD is the most common cause of bone damage like Tutankhamen’s. The deformed blood cells block capillaries, preventing oxygen from reaching bone tissue. Tutankhamen’s parents are thought to be related, boosting the chance that they both carried the sickle-cell gene.
People with SCD can still carry the malaria parasite in their blood, despite their increased immunity. In King Tut’s case, such an infection could have triggered a fatal “sickle cell crisis” in which his essential organs were starved of oxygen, Timmann says.
Members of Hawass’s team describe the suggestion as “interesting and plausible” and say that they are “currently investigating”. That would presumably require testing Tutankhamen’s mummy for the presence of the sickle-cell gene.
Timmann’s lab has developed a test: given access to the DNA, “we could do it in an hour”, he says. But if that is the line the Egyptians are taking, they are going it alone. Timmann says he contacted them, offering to collaborate, but has received no reply.
Other researchers would also like to receive information from the Egyptian team. In a second letter in JAMA this week, a pair of US researchers suggests that King Tut and his relatives might have had a hormonal disorder which causes, among other things, deformed skulls and small male genitals. They need detailed photographs of the skull of Tut’s father to confirm their theory, but the Egyptian team has exclusive access to the mummies and has not yet released the relevant pictures.
posted
He looks African to me, His skin looks weird why do they try so hard to make him as light as possible
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
There is a difference between an intellectual facination vs an unhealthy obession.
Posts: 2463 | From: New Jersey USA | Registered: Dec 2007
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