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( ) Ancient Egypt Magazine -- No. 133 (Vol 23.1) September/October 2022 Book Reviews The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids by Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner.
Thames & Hudson, 2022 ISBN 978-0-500-05211-2 Hardback, £30.00.
In this category I include Geoffrey Martin’s The Hidden Tombs of Memphis and Kent Weeks’ The Lost Tomb, and now another title has joined my list.
Pierre Tallet’s account of the discovery of the Wadi el-Jarf Papyri and the recognition of their significance for Mark Lehner’s work at Giza is the gripping story of a coincidence of events and interests with far-reaching implications for the understanding of the foundation of the Egyptian state.
The earliest port facility so far identified on the Red Sea coast includes ship galleries, storage facilities and a 200-metre-long jetty, built of stone and clay, enclosing a protected harbour.
This changes the perception of the Egyptians as unadventurous or inexpert maritime sailors and demonstrates the importance of access to and transport of raw materials from sites like the copper mines of Sinai and the desert quarries.
Fragments of papyrus had been found throughout the site, but in 2013 a more substantial bundle was discovered which proved to be an abandoned collection of administrative documents dated to Years 26-27 of the reign of Khufu, making them the oldest papyri yet discovered. Most intriguing are the documents relating to the work-gang of the ship ‘The Uraeus of Khufu is its Prow’, especially the log books in which the supervisor or inspector, Merer, recorded the gang’s daily activities. That such an archive should have survived in this remote outpost, suggests that the keeping of similar records was already standard practice within Egyptian bureaucracy by the time the Giza Pyramids were built. It casts new light on the composition and organisation of the work-crews and the logistics of supplying royal building projects.
Tracing the place names mentioned by Merer on his voyages to and from the Tura limestone quarries has helped re-imagine the ancient waterscape of Giza, and the reinterpretation of facilities such as the workers’ settlement of Heit el-Ghurab.
The authors tell their intriguing, sometimes breath-taking story in an engaging way. The book is illustrated throughout, including quality images of the papyri themselves, with transcriptions and translations, and artist’s reconstructions of the Giza waterscape.
This book is a fascinating and, above all, readable account of a discovery which has already had significant impact on our understanding of Egypt in the Pyramid Age.
Hilary Wilson
Ancient Egypt in its African Context (Cambridge Elements: Ancient Egypt in Context) by Andrea Manzo.
Cambridge University Press, 2022 ISBN: 978-1-009-07454-4 Paperback, £15.
Part of the new ‘Elements’ series, this short volume provides a detailed overview of the relationship between Egypt and its African neighbours: namely Libya to the west and Nubia/Sudan to the south. Over thousands of years, Egypt gained and lost over its neighbouring countries, and here the author unpicks the tangled web of colonialism, trade, war and invasion to explain the historical, geographical and socio-economic background to this complex subject.
Manzo begins by introducing the history of scholarship in this subject, highlighting Egypt and Africa as a ‘debated issue’ ever since the beginning of the study of Egyptology in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The exploration of inconsistencies, biases and assumptions made around the history of the peoples and cultures south of the first Nile cataract, which persist today, I found especially interesting. Drawing on a range of art-historical, textual, iconographic, archaeological, and architectural sources, readers can gain a broad understanding of these issues from the perspective of both the Egyptians and their neighbours.
The section entitled “Between Exploitation and Entanglement” helps the reader to view the political, social and economic exchanges between Egypt and its African neighbours during the pharaonic period beyond the simplistic interpretations of coloniser/ colonised. This more nuanced examination asks, for example, what it meant to be an inhabitant of the Nile Valley during the New Kingdom – a period of intensive travel, trade and exchange beyond Egypt’s borders. A detailed discussion of these dynamics, and what they meant for Egyptians in Africa, and Africans in Egypt, is particularly enlightening. The author concludes by highlighting the need for further archaeological fieldwork in the region, which is essential if we hope to unpick further aspects of the “intense relations” between Egypt and its African neighbours, and the origins and trajectories of the Egyptian State.
In many ways, the new Cambridge Elements series is similar to the wellloved Shire Egyptology books, in that they take a complex subject and distil it for a general audience: not dumbing down, but instead drawing on primary source material to illustrate these issues in a short, accessible manner.
The Cambridge series takes this approach one step further, focusing on wider Egyptological themes and debates beyond those often-narrow viewpoints traditionally repeated by Egyptologists.
Well-illustrated with a selection of relevant greyscale and line drawings, the volume is ideal for a reader seeking a general introduction to the key primary sources and current debates around this complex topic. An extensive bibliography will be particularly useful for students and those wishing to take their exploration of this fascinating subject further.
Anna Garnett
Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: The Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects by Toby Wilkinson.
Picador, 2022 ISBN: 987-1-5290-4587-1 Hardback, £25; Ebook, £16.99.
A few examples give an impression of the whole. The green glass at the centre of one of the pectorals is discussed in the “Geography” chapter, as it must have been created by the impact of a meteor in the Great Sand Sea of the Western Desert. In the “History” chapter, the crook and flail lead on to a discussion about the origins and importance of the icons of royalty, like the Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. The boxes of preserved meat found in the tomb’s Antechamber allow Wilkinson to discuss the importance of cattle in the chapter on “Bounty”. In “Monarchy”, the statuette of the king harpooning is described as symbolic of the defeat of Seth, and so the story of the conflict between Horus and Seth is recounted.
A folding stool in the “Domesticity” chapter leads on to a description of the typical house. The ivory clappers in “Humanity” form part of a long section describing childbirth. The model solar barques mentioned in “Piety” are described as part of the ideology that had its origins in the First Dynasty. In “Mortality” Tutankhamun’s mummy leads into a discussion about succession and the sad tale of Ankhesenamun’s failed attempt to marry a Hittite prince. And finally, in the chapter “Legacy”, we discover the reason for the book’s title.
Wilkinson says: “Like Tutankhamun himself, the music that once surrounded him has vanished, and all that remains are echoes of the past. The objects buried with him [like his silver trumpet] provide glimpses into his world and into the civilization of which he remains the ultimate symbol …” The book is priced at a level that is within the reach of student and general reader alike, but no doubt to reduce costs, it has been published and printed in a format that went out of fashion in the 1970s. The colour plates of artefacts are all grouped together in two sections unrelated to their mention in the text. Harry Burton’s blackand- white pictures of the objects are of the highest quality, but here they are reproduced as tiny vignettes within the text on poor quality paper, which does not do them justice. Included are an index and useful notes on the sources of information for further study, linked to the extensive bibliography.
This is a work that will serve as a reference book for professional Egyptologists and amateur enthusiasts alike, but more importantly would make a highly readable introduction to the subject for the novice.
JPP
Udjahorresnet & His World : Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, volume 26, June 2020 edited by Melanie Wasmuth & Pierce Paul Creasman.
The Egyptian Expedition, 2021 ISBN-13: 979-8-66-358438-8 Paperback, £49.50.
Among the topics discussed include: his role as a cross-regional agent; his family and social background; his shaft tomb at Abusir; and a reconsideration of Udjahorresnet’s celebrated naophorous commemorative statue, the so-called Naoforo Vaticano, in addition to other material sources. Allison McCoskey explores Egyptian attitudes to foreign rulers in the late sixth century BC, asking if Udjahorresnet’s extant inscriptions exhibit any form of resistance to invasion and subsequent foreign control in their composition.
Francesco Lopez argues that the celebrated reform of the ‘House of Life’ carried out by Udjahorresnet was ordered by the Persian ruler, Darius I, not only because Egyptian physicians had earlier failed to heal him of a dislocated ankle, but also because of a perceived decline in Egyptian medicine in the early years of Darius’s reign.
Henry Colburn examines the question that although Udjahorresnet was a high-ranking courtier in Egypt, certain representational features of the Naoforo Vaticano’s form, function and inscription also indicate that he had a Persian identity. Colman emphasises that identities are plural and the importance of one identity need not obliterate the importance of another.
That Udjahorresnet may have considered himself a Persian did not make him any less of an Egyptian.
According to his autobiography inscribed on the Naoforo Vaticano, Udjahorresnet played a key role in the compilation of the royal titulary for the Persian ruler Cambyses when he became pharaoh of Egypt. Ivan Ladynin suggests that its compilation and the sympathies of its compiler can be used to define trends in legitimising the authority of Egypt’s foreign rulers.
The papers in this publication, written by a number of prominent scholars, examine and highlight the crosscultural connections of Udjahorresnet, and not only review the evidence from the Egyptological viewpoint but also the comparative evidence from Babylonia and Persia.
An academic publication worth reading to obtain insight into this complex individual, and also the close connectivity of the late sixth century BC Nile Valley with Achaemenid Persia.
Roger Forshaw
Childhood in Ancient Egypt by Amandine Marshall.
AUC Press (2022 English translation) ISBN: 978-1649-031228 Hardback, £59.95.
However, much of what we think we know about ancient Egyptian childhood is based on ancient sources produced by elite male adults – tomb scenes, statues, and inscriptions, for example – which do not represent expressions of the children themselves.
Marshall eloquently notes that a “respect for life was a characteristic of ancient Egyptian society, but this did not mean that children were respected because of their young age”. With this in mind, what can we really know about the lives of children who lived along the Nile thousands of years ago? Drawing together a wide range of archaeological, iconographic and textual material, as well as modern ethnographic parallels, the author offers a comprehensive and accessible assessment of childhood from infancy to adolescence, in an attempt to answer this question.
First published in French in 2013 (Être un enfant en Égypte ancienne), this 2022 volume is the English translation of research developed from the author’s Ph.D. thesis. The complex subject is broken into four manageable sections: ‘The image of the child and the perception of childhood’; ‘Raising and caring for the child’; ‘Growing up in ancient Egypt’; and ‘Protecting the child’. These themes draw upon evidence of childhood across the socioeconomic spectrum and from both urban and rural contexts. Forming the basis of these discussions are the experiences of wealthy children (including royalty) and their less-privileged counterparts who made up the vast majority of the population (and about whom we have significantly less evidence to draw upon).
Throughout the book the reader is invited to reconsider their prior assumptions about aspects of ancient Egyptian childhood: for example, a critical assessment of long-held beliefs about the symbolism of the so-called ‘sidelock of youth’ is especially important in this regard. I was also interested to read the author’s discussion of ancient Egyptian footwear, including sandals, which questions why certain examples had been linked with adult sizes in the past when bioarchaeological evidence indicates that they were more likely to have been children’s footwear. Of course, new evidence to support or disprove pre-existing theories continues to emerge through new archaeological discoveries, and this fact is acknowledged and illustrated throughout the volume.
Beautifully illustrated with 160 drawings and photographs, with an extensive bibliography and glossary, this important work will interest both general and scholarly readers and will undoubtedly form a core text for the study of this often-misunderstood topic.
Anna Garnett You can read an article by Amandine Marshall on the looting of Tutankhamun’s tomb on page 36.
Mummified: The stories behind Egyptian mummies in museums by Angela Stienne.
Manchester University Press, 2022 ISBN 978-1-5261-6189-5 Hardback, £20.
The author explores the history of the displacement of ancient Egyptian individuals, always treating each as a real person so that the reader cannot forget that the mummy was once a living, breathing creature. A short poem from 1691, written to celebrate the arrival of such a person in Paris, illustrates the paradox.
“The object of the curious, and the love of the erudite Victim of death for four thousand years, Despite death I remain alive.”
The first part of the book explores the relationship between Europeans and the remains of the Egyptian dead over time. The history of the study of mummies – mainly by Europeans and non-Egyptians – is explored, from the use of mummy material for medical purposes, through the fashionable voyeurism of the dramatic unwrappings of the late eighteenth century, into the controversies and the pseudoscience characterising debates through the centuries. This story developed according to the views held at each period and often with political implications.
Much of this history has been dominated by a Eurocentric view which included colonial and racist attitudes relating to the so-called superiority of white races. The debate relating to whether ancient Egyptians were white is discussed. The sad case of Saartjie Baartman from South Africa (who was paraded in freak shows as the “Hottentot Venus”), illustrates clearly the way in which human remains could be viewed and treated by those trying to prove racial superiority.
After her death, various body parts were pickled or replicated in plaster and generally treated as curious objects rather than as human. This example became entangled with the various studies of ancient remains.
Eminent scholars such as Petrie and Galton were convinced of the value of eugenics, including the importance of measuring skulls. These ideas have also lent credibility to more recently touted theories claiming that ancient Egyptians could not have developed sufficiently to produce their amazing achievements – giving rise to ideas that aliens or distant strangers must have been responsible.
Modern science has influenced the current debate on mummies. DNA is a useful weapon in the armoury and there is now no need to unwrap mummies to investigate their contents. This does not close the debate, however.
There are still questions to be answered about what is invasive, whether or not human remains should be on display and should the exiled dead be returned to their origins? These questions will continue to be debated.
The author ends her thoughtful study by looking at Ramesses II’s remarkable journey to Paris in 1976 to treat the problems besetting his deteriorating remains. The mummy was accorded the utmost respect as a man of such distinction deserved. The box in which he came back to Cairo was covered in a velvet shroud the colour of lapis lazuli, embroidered with lily and papyrus plants. This kind of respect was also evident in the more recent transfer of the royal mummies to their home in the new Egyptian Museum. She then offers the reader a challenge: “Now it is your turn to shape and share your thought, with a greater awareness of the challenges and possibilities of the conversations we are having.”
Hilary Forrest
The Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos: Vol 2 – Pillars, Niches and Miscellanea by Sameh Iskander & Ogden Goelet
Lockwood Press, 2022 ISBN 978-1-937-04037-6 Hardback, £113.
SG
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Egyptological
page-turners are not common. By this, I mean a book intended for both popular
and scholastic audiences which, as well as being informative and authoritative,
is an enjoyable read from cover to cover.
The
subject of ancient Egypt in its wider African context has rightly gained
prominence, and become more deeply embedded, in Egyptological critical research
over the past twenty years. As a discipline founded on both ancient
The
structure of this book is inspired. Its publication is timed to coincide with
the centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and Professor Wilkinson
has chosen 100 of the objects found within the tomb to illustrate “The Story” of
ancient Egypt – not just its history, but all aspects of the ancient
civilisation. Ten objects are mentioned in each of ten chapters, and the
straightforward way of doing this would have been to have sub-chapters for each.
Instead, the author has created a work that reads more like a page-turner novel
than a textbook, and the items are skilfully incorporated into the text
unannounced and almost unnoticed by the reader. The scope of the book is
astonishing and illustrates Wilkinson’s consummate erudition and vast knowledge
of all aspects of Egyptology, including the latest discoveries.
Udjahorresnet
and His World 
The
way that children in ancient Egypt were perceived and raised had a direct impact
on the development of society over thousands of years.
This
rather unusual book is a very personal exploration of a major ethical and
philosophical study. Like the author, I spent many hours as a teenager viewing
the mummies in the British Museum. It never occurred to me to doubt the humanity
of these individuals or to question how and why they came to their current
resting place. The question of human remains in collections has been under
scrutiny for a number of years by museums worldwide, raising all kinds of
controversial issues.
This
stunning pictorial record of one of Egypt’s major temples is based on a six-year
field project that began in 2007 to create a comprehensive photographic and
epigraphic document of Ramesses II’s Abydos temple, and is part of a three
volume series: volume 1 – wall reliefs – was published in 2015; volume 3 will
cover architectural and inscriptional features. Each scene is presented as a
double page with a high resolution photograph on the left, facing a
corresponding digitalised line drawing on the right, with a list detailing the
contents of each scene. Essential for anyone wanting to make an in-depth study
of this temple – and an enjoyable tour of the temple for the less academically
minded.
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