Book Review: The Alexander Cipher
Daniel Knox, a dive instructor and former archeologist, is just one of many characters searching for Alexander the Great’s lost tomb in British author Will Adams’s less than suspenseful debut. Aboard a dive boat in the Red Sea, Knox goes against his better judgment and rescues an attractive young blonde from the clutches of wealthy Hassan al-Assyuti, who’s intent on rape and battery. Knox must then go on the run, leaving him barely enough time to fall in love with Gaille Bonnard, a demotic language expert working on a dig connected to Alexander in northern Egypt. In Alexandria, construction manager Mohammed el-Dahab has stumbled on a necropolis that will eventually point all the competing searchers toward Alexander’s actual tomb. Thriller fans with an interest in Egyptology and Alexander will find much to like, while those seeking swift action and adventure will find themselves bogged down in too many subplots and historical factoids.
Book Review: The Princeton Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
By Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson (Princeton Press, in association with The British Museum)
For more than a decade, this attractive single-volume reference has been the most informative and user-friendly dictionary of ancient Egypt available. The new edition features a completely revised text, hundreds of illustrations in full color and more than 600 up-to-date alphabetical entries that range from agriculture to Zawiyet-el-Mayitin. In short, this excellent work provides concise information on all aspects of Egypt during the pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods. Each entry is followed by a bibliography, allowing readers to pursue subjects in greater detail. Thoroughly indexed and cross-referenced, this is an indispensible source for researchers, students and anyone with an interest in the ancient world.
Book: The Heretic Queen
Michelle Moran convincingly weaves an epic love story, a gorgeously detailed history lesson, and a gripping tale of political intrigue in her sophomore novel, “The Heretic Queen.”
This story picks up a few years after her first novel, “Nefertiti,” ends. Reviled by her people for her role in the near-ruin of Egypt and dubbed the Heretic Queen for turning her back on the traditional gods during her reign, Queen Nefertiti has been murdered; most of her family has perished in a suspicious fire. The sole survivor is her namesake niece, Nefertari, who lives in the shadows of the royal court, her family’s contributions to the country stripped from the official records.
Like Moran’s first book, “The Heretic Queen” is rooted in meticulous research; her fictional characters are based on actual people and historically documented facts, which makes the story resonate on many levels. Moran’s careful attention to detail and her artful storytelling skills bring these people - pharaohs, princesses, and queens; petitioners, servants, and soldiers - to vivid life, imbuing ancient history with suspense and urgency.
Excerpted from an article by Lylah M. Alphonse for The Boston Globe
Ancient Egypt Magazine December 2008 / January 2009
Bob Partridge, Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine announced that the December 2008/January 2009 issue (published in the U.K.) is now available.
This issue is also available as an electronic version which can be found at the web site www.ancientegyptmagazine.com. This may be useful for anyone with a broadband connection who may have difficulty in getting hold of a paper copy of the magazine, or who might want to see a copy before subscribing.
Contents of this issue include:
- News from Egypt and the World of Egyptology: In an enlarged ‘From the Editor’ and our regular ‘From our Egypt Correspondent’ all the latest news and information including reports on the opening of the new visitor centre at Karnak, the CT scanning and testing of the foetuses from Tutankhamun’s tomb, new excavations on the east and west banks at Luxor and the latest special exhibition in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
- The Lost Sarcophagus: Paul Boughton tells the story of the removal of the sarcophagus of Menkaura from his pyramid at Giza and how it was lost at sea on the way to the U.K. Plans are apparently afoot to see if it can now be recovered from its watery resting place.
- The Stela of Bakenkhonsu: Discovered in the excavations in the avenue of sphinxes at Luxor, Mansour Boraik, General Director of Antiquities of Luxor and Upper Egypt, translates the inscription and reveals how the text is changing our knowledge of a particular period of ancient Egyptian history.
- Timekeeping in Ancient Egypt: Nicholas Wernick investigates how the ancient Egyptians kept track of time.
- The Tomb Paintings of Nebamun in the British Museum: Nebamun’s paintings are some of the great artistic treasures in the British Museum and, in advance of the opening of a new gallery to display them in January, Richard Parkinson tells how they have been conserved and studied. Illustrated with some great photos of the newly conserved paintings.
- Ur Sunu: A brief look at an exhibition on Egyptian medicine in Italy.
- Dr. Zahi Hawass’s Famous Hat: A look at how sales of exact copies of Dr. Hawass’s famous hat are helping a new Children’s Museum being built in Cairo.
- The Amarna Project: In the last of a series of articles on his work at Amarna, Professor Barry Kemp looks at why the city of Amarna died.
- PerMesut: in our regular feature for younger readers, Hilary Wilson looks at Jackal Gods.
- Net Fishing: our regular look at Egyptology on the Web. This issue Victor Blunden, in a series on the history of Egypt, looks at sites devoted to the sons of Rameses II and his successor, Merenptah.
New Books featured
- The Pyramids of Giza: Facts, Legends and Mysteries, by Jean-Paul Corteggiani.
- The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Helen Strudwick.
- The Cave Church of St. Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul, Egypt, Edited by William Lyster.
- From Egypt to Babylon: The International Age, 1550-500 BC, by Paul Collins.
- Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, by Paul Collins.
- Egyptian Stories: a British Tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the Occasion of his Retirement, edited by Thomas Schneider and Kasia Szpakowska..
- Dictionaries of Civilisation: Egypt, Pharaonic Period, by Alessia Fassone and Enrico Ferraris.
- The Queens of Egypt, by Rosanna Pirelli.
- Zaiwat Um el Rakham I: The Temple and Chapels, by Steven Snape and Penelope Wilson.
- Crowns in Egyptian Funerary Literature: Royalty, Rebirth and Destruction, by Katja Goebs.
- Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, by Janet Richards.
- The Egyptian Renaissance: The Afterlife of Ancient Egypt in Early Modern Italy, by Brian Curran.
Plus full Egyptology Society listings and UK lectures from December 2008 to February 2009 and listings of exhibitions and Egyptological events.
Fundraising event on E-Bay for Egypt Exploration Society
More than 900 Egyptology books were donated to the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) earlier this year by Mrs Edwina Iredale. Many of the titles can already be found in the Society’s library and EES have decided to sell the duplicates to raise funds for the purchase of new books. A selection has already appeared on eBay and more will be added in the next few days. See the Society’s eBay profile for details:
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/ees1882/?_trksid=p3911.c0.m346
Book: The Smiting Texts now officially launched in the UK
Author: Roy Lester Pond
“A modern archaeological thriller.”
“An ancient, esoteric time bomb.”
The murder of an Egyptologist rings alarm bells with the US Department of Homeland Security. Before he knows it they co-opt his son, controversial British historian Anson Hunter, into an investigation that has stunning implications for US security. The search catapults Anson, Kalila, a Coptic Egyptian girl, and an intelligence team into a race through the length of Egypt, yet soon their search attracts the attention of radical Islamists as well as the Egyptian authorities. Dark suspicions surface, suspicions that Anson’s father found evidence of a secret that will shake the foundations of every major world religion. Soon, whichever way they turn, Anson and his team find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of intrigue and menace that becomes too hideously real. Anson Hunter’s special knowledge as an alternative Egyptologist, theorist and phenomenologist could be the key to stopping a catastrophe.
Book Review: Egyptology Today by Richard H. Wilkinson
Reviewed by L. R. Siddall, School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London
This is a superb book. Wilkinson has brought together some of the current leading Egyptologists to produce a single volume work that introduces the reader to the methods and theories used in the study of ancient Egypt. All aspects of Egyptology are covered from the Egyptian language and medical research to the way archaeologists survey sites and the conservation of artefacts. The book is organized thematically into four parts (approaches, monuments, art and artifacts, and texts), with each part comprising three chapters. Wonderfully illustrated, this book will make excellent reading for students of the ancient world and the interested public.
The volume opens and closes with succinct essays by the editor on the past, current, and future status of Egyptological research. Wilkinson introduces the reader to the reality of modern Egyptological practice and research, pointing out that the latter part of the twentieth century has seen the study of Egyptology benefit from broader methods of scholarship taken from the arts and humanities, and the natural and medical sciences. Egyptology is now very much an interdisciplinary field.
Book: Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt
by Joyce Tyldesley
A new biography of the Macedonian ruler attempts to debunk many myths surrounding her legacy. Egyptologist Tyldesley (Egypt: How a Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered, 2006, etc.) digs deeply into Cleopatra’s life, piecing together a unique portrait of her successes and failures.
Many biographers focus too much on Cleopatra’s reputation as a temptress, but Tyldesley gamely analyzes her politically astute nature at work against the backdrop of the bloody, brutal times in which she operated. In chronological fashion, the author covers the major historical issues surrounding Cleopatra, but she wisely avoids lingering too long on well-traveled ground. Tyldesley examines many of the burning questions that continue to puzzle historians - Was she black? Did she marry her brother? Was she beautiful or ugly? - and that have helped create such a beguiling picture of the queen.
Book: The disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication
by John Baines (Editor), John Bennet (Editor), Stephen Houston (Editor)
Probably more writing systems have disappeared than survived in the last five thousand years. While the invention and decipherment of writing systems have long been focuses of research, their eclipse or replacement have been little studied. This volume gathers papers from the first conference ever to be held on the disappearance of writing systems, in Oxford in March 2004.
Case studies from the Old and New Worlds are presented, ranging over periods from the first millennium BC to the present. In order to address many types of transmission, the broadest possible definition of ‘writing’ is used, notably including Mexican pictography and the Andean khipu system. One chapter discusses the larger proportion of known human societies that have not possessed complex material codes like writing, offering an alternative perspective on the long-term transmission of socially salient subjects. A concluding essay draws out common themes and offers an initial synthesis of results.
The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication offers a new perspective on approaches to writing that will be significant for the understanding of writing systems and their social functions, literacy, memory, and high-cultural communication systems in general.
More than 1000 photographs of Egypt
This Spanish website has a huge collection of photos taken by member travelers. For English speakers, this is the translation for the Image Gallery of Egypt:
Now you can know all the archaeological sites and all corners of Egypt visiting our Image Gallery. More than 1,000 photographs to begin with, divided by geographical area to make it easier to search. Unpublished photographs, some classical and others not so well known. Continuously updated. Remember to respect the copyright.
