An Ancient Art Conversation

While driving in the car last week, Sam and I had quite an intelligent conversation about ancient art; it left me feeling really proud of my smart, thoughtful boy, and also a little baffled that he made such keen observations and connections. I'll try and recreate the conversation as best as I can here. It was cute to see that he was thinking about ancient art and wanting to discuss things that he knows I teach to my students:

Sam: [Looking at my Rosetta Stone lunch tote] So, what is written on the Rosetta Stone?

Me: Well, it talks about a few laws, including saying that some priests (who are leaders in the Egyptian religion) could get a tax break. That means that the priests wouldn't need to pay taxes or as many taxes as other people.

Sam: Well, then I think everyone in Egypt would want to be a priest!

Me: Ha! Maybe.

Sam: And why was the Rosetta Stone written in three languages?

Me: Well, the Egyptians were ruled by the Greeks at this time, so they needed things to be written in more than one language so that both Egyptians and Greeks could understand the message. It's kind of like how your summer reading packet from the library has instructions in both English and Spanish.

Sam: I see. [Pause.] And remind me what was Stonehenge was made for?

Me: Well, we don't know for sure. Some people think that it was a calendar. Remember the summer solstice we just had? One of the stones at Stonehenge lines up with the sun rising on the summer solstice, so it may be a way to help tell the time of the year. But we also think it was associated with things kind of like funerals, because people are buried there. [Side note: I was going to explain that there are cremated remains, but Sam interrupted me.]

Sam: There are people buried there?!? [Pause.] Well, maybe they thought about people rising up from graveyards because of the sun rising.

Me: That is such a good thought, Bud! Maybe so! Did you know that the pyramids have a similar connection to the sun? The pharaohs are buried inside, and the slanted sides of the pyramid are like the rays of the sun.

[Our conversation was interrupted while we dropped Lucy off at her day care. When we got back to the car, Sam started things up again.]

Sam: So, what about those gray statues with big faces that are really tall (and we saw one in England) - where are they from?

Me: Like "Dum Dum" from Night at the Museum? Those statues are from Easter Island.

Sam: And what are they for?

Me: Well, we think that they might be protectors or guards. They might be representations of the relatives of people who have already died, and they now help protect and guard their family members who are still alive.

Sam: Well, why did they make all of the faces look the same if it is of a relative? Why didn't they make them look like the person? [These cute questions made by art historian's heart swell!] T

Me: Well, what if the relative died a long time before and the people didn't know what the ancestor looked like? Maybe they wanted all the faces to be generic and look the same, so that it would look like a person but not make the mistake of trying to look like the relative but not getting it to look just like them.

Sam: Well, why didn't they just ask someone what the relative looked like? Or just look at a photo of the person?

Me: Well, these statues were made a long time ago, before the invention of photography.

Sam: Before the invention of photography?!? Huh. I wonder who invented the photograph.

Me: Well, some people say that it was invented by a man named Daguerre, and the early photographs were called daguerrotypes after this man.

Sam: And how did they work?

Me: I don't know all about daguerrotypes, but I imagine that they were made with light burning an image into something like film. Remember how Dad has a film camera? Photos used to be taken with film, but now they are digital.

Sam: Right.

Our conversation ended there, because we reached our destination. We actually arrived at the library; I needed to do some grading and we planned out that Sam read some books while I worked. I was so pleased with our little chat, and Sam again showed off his intelligence while I was grading: I was typing an explanation to a student about Hercules and his labor to find the golden apples of the Hesperides. As I briefly explained the mythology in a sentence or two, Sam looked over my shoulder, read what I wrote, and said, "Yep. That's true."

I looked over and said, "What do you mean?"

Sam replied, "I read about that in my book on Hercules. That was one of his missions to get the golden apples."

I told Sam that it was pretty neat that he already knew things that I was teaching to college students, and he seemed really pleased with himself. As he should be. I'm so lucky to have such a bright boy for a son.

On Sunday I found this cute selfie of Sam on my phone

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about how Sam looks so tall and old. He's not really "my little boy" anymore (something that I loved to call him), and I need to get used to that. But I also am enjoying the more mature, grown-up way that he is able to interact with me. But I also love that he is still be a sweet, kind, innocent boy.