During my morning browse of the intarweb, I was amused to find a piece at Archaeology.org titled “Zombie Attack at Hierakonpolis“. The article begins in a serious, but intriguing manner, but it doesn’t take long to realise that it’s taking the mickey:
On the other hand, in support of the earlier date, some have claimed that the famous Palette of Narmer (ca. 3000 B.C.), also from Hierakonpolis, far from recording a victory in the war of unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, is instead a celebration of the successful repulse of a zombie attack….There may be more to this in that Narmer’s name means catfish-chisel, which sounds strange, and a catfish and chisel appear on the palette. But this could make sense if the palette refers to a victory over zombie forces. Perhaps Narmer wielded a large Nile catfish, Clarias?, grasping the tail and using it as a sort of black jack to stun the zombies, then removed their heads with a chisel.
I’m not sure why this article is on the normally scholarly and reserved Archaeology.org – perhaps it’s a reprint from an earlier Halloween or April Fools Day issue. Or maybe they are testing to see how far such as bullsh*t story can spread over the web without being picked up. If so, I’m up for spreading it, and finding the real zombies out there. So shout it from the rooftops: the zombies are coming!
Update: Following one of the links, to a supposed interview with a zombie expert, it seems this was an April Fools 2006 story.
