Ever since my first visit to Egypt in 1998, the country had won me over. The country, often referred to as the “cradle of civilization” also had me firmly in it’s grip.
Soon after, I started my first website (in Dutch), pretending to tell “All about Egypt”.
Soon enough a couple of things became rather clear to me:
- It’s impossible to tell “All” about Egypt’s history: Most Egyptologists know a lot about the country’s history but specialize in certain fields.
- Since I did not study Egyptology, I lacked most “off the shelf” knowledge to even begin a good article.
|
Marcel en Monica Maessen |
Slowly but surely it became clear to me that, in order to get a scientific justifiable article on paper, I had to upgrade my knowledge on most if not all subjects relating to Ancient Egypt and that this would take a lot of time. Time, I more than willingly spend on my greatest passion at the time: The history of Ancient Egypt.
A couple of years (and the rather amateur website kingtut.nl) later, I met the Dutch Egyptologist Huub Pragt, who on one hand liked my website because of some good articles, but on the other hand had some doubts on his mind as to the other, more questionable, articles. Huub was able to convince me that there really was a future for my website, as long as I stuck to the facts instead of just writing down everything I heard and/or read.
Mainly because of these talks I had with Huub I decided to change course. A new domain (www.kemet.nl), referring to the ancient name for Egypt, was registered. This, along with new scientifically justifiable articles and the removal of the questionable articles were the ingredients to give my website a new boost.
I wanted Kemet.nl to become the website in the Dutch language for people who wanted to know more about the history and civilization of the ancient country.
And, It worked like a charm!
Kemet.nl was visited, quoted and referred to by many. Even some schools used the information I put on the web, for their classes. The new direction I had chosen was certainly one to be proud of. As I should be, considering the time I spend on research, writing of articles and design (on average 4 hours per day)!
Then again, Time was not an issue back then, being single with only one real hobby: writing about Ancient Egypt on my website.
Then, in march 2006, something happened that put it all to an abrupt end. I met the love of my life, Monica. In Egypt of all places!
Things between Monica and myself took an explosive course. We met in March 2006 and in August of the same year I moved from Valkenswaard (in the south of Holland) to ‘t Veld In the north of Holland to be with my Monica!
In The Netherlands we say “Business comes before the lady”, but in my case it was absolutely the other way around. Monica comes first and the rest much, much later!
The result of my “new” life was that I did not want to spend any more time on the research and writing activities for the website. My love (and Monica’s) for Egypt remained, but no more updating the site.
For a short period of time, Huub Pragt and I talked about updating and expanding the website together, but eventually the flame died.
I gave Huub the domain kemet.nl as a token of my appreciation for all the help he had given me and at the end kemet.nl returned with a new owner, new articles and a new crew.
A pity for me? Yes, but the choices I had made in 2006 were made with all my heart! Yet, somehow Monica new that one day I would be back on the Net with a new site.
And she was right!
Ever Since June 2009, I was getting a nervous feeling in my stomach, every time I saw or read something about Egypt and Egyptology. I wanted to get started again with something. There was one condition, though, and that was that it had to become a joined project for Monica and myself.
Also, I wanted to limit the subjects on the new site to 3 direction max. Three specializations so to speak.
What I wrote in the beginning of this article, that no one can tell “all” about Ancient Egypt still is true and without any help, a person who has not been educated in Egyptology can not write scientifically justifiable articles about the history of Egypt.
So, I had to find subjects which:
- are both appealing to laymen as well as Egyptologists and students of Egyptology,
- are Interesting enough for visitor’s, just passing by,
- Can be researched and written by someone without a degree in Egyptology.
Just today (July 25. 2009), we decided on the subjects:
- The locations and history of Excavation houses in Egypt.
A lot of the excavation teams, working in Egypt, stay at their specific house every season to live and work. A lot of these house have been their for a 100 years or and we will eventually tell all there is to know about their history and as much as we can come up with about the history of their inhabitants, past and present.
- Extensive biographies of Egyptologists
You can find something about every Egyptologist there has ever been, but we like to take their stories a little bit further by doing extensive research on them. Also about current Egyptologists.
- Old and New:
Ever since Photography has been invented, photographs were taken of places and objects in Egypt. We want to find these photographs, find the locations and objects and photograph them in their current state.
As with every new website we will have to start with only little content and see it grow. so don’t expect huge amounts of articles and photographs. Through decent research (which takes time) our website will grow.
Today we will start investing this time and we will hopefully be able to do so until the end of our days.
Marcel and Monica Maessen
‘t Veld, 25. July 2009
Now, the above reflect our thoughts in July 2009.
Meanwhile, since appr. mid 2010, things have changed a bit. Although our thoughts and wishes remain unchanged, we had to drop two of the three subjects, we initially decided on.
Researching the hsitroy of dighouses took up most, if not all, of our spare time and since we still want to do the best job possible, we decided the pursue the history of dighouses only.
Maybe, in the future when we will have more time to spare, we will continue with the other two subjects.
Marcel and Monica Maessen
't Veld, 25. July 2011
|
