Welcome!
Welcome to the personal website of Amennakhte sa Neferhotep, known in the mundane world as Sean Burton.
SCA History
I found the SCA in January 2023. For years I'd been an aspiring homesteader and DIY-er. I began looking for a way to rely less on store-bought materials. I thought to myself, "people in medieval times farmed and preserved food, made clothes, etc., how were they doing it?" A few Google searches later and I found an organization that studies how people were living in medieval and ancient cultures by recreating the skills of the time. How awesome is that?
Persona
My SCA persona is based in new Kingdom Egypt. I don't know that I will really ever go much beyond that as far as personal development goes.
I got the name Amennakhte from a famous scribe of the time, Amennakhte son of Ipuy. While the Valley of the Kings was being built, there was a village that housed all of the workers called Deir el-Medina. Amennakhte lived there and appears in several court documents. He is also credited as documenting the first worker protest in history.
How did I land on ancient Egypt? That's a boring story.
When I first got started with the SCA, I had a really hard time deciding on a persona (yes, I know it's not set in stone and yes, I know I can change it whenever, but still...). Due to a few different factors I kept changing what I wanted my persona to be. One day I sat down and asked myself what I really wanted to study. Not the garb I wanted to wear, not the skills I wanted to learn... If I just wanted to sit down and read about history, what would keep my attention the longest? Ancient Egypt. As an added bonus, it turns out Egyptian clothing is comfortable, easy to make, and perfect for Trimarian summers.
Area of Study
There are few things I am not interested in learning. I've dabbled in multiple topics and, while some spark more joy than others, my craft closet is definitely overflowing.
There is, however, one area that has caught my attention: fermentation. I made lacto-fermented pickles before getting into the SCA, and mead making was one of my first SCA endeavors. Since then my interest has only grown. Standing back and looking at shelves of active ferments with all the bubbles moving about and airlocks bouncing around, it feels like magic. In fact, for most of the SCA time period, fermentation was considered magic. Another reason why I find it so interesting.
I'm still just starting my journey, but I've begun teaching some intro to fermentation classes. If you ever see me at an event and want to nerd out or have questions about fermentation, please feel free to ask! So far I've dabbled in mead, lacto-fermented foods, sourdough, and vinegar.
For details on my projects, check out the other pages on this site. If you need to reach out, you can email me at amennakhte@gmail.com