The first time I came to Egypt, and Zamalek, I was 12 years old. It made a lasting impression on me, leading me to study Egyptology. But the first time I really saw the country was when I was a student of 20 years old, back in 2008. At that time I was doing my…
Category: Reviews
Egyptologists’ Notebooks
Egyptologists’ Notebooks (2020) Chris Naunton Thames & Hudson 264 pages, 242 ill. ISBN: 9780500295298 Publisher link To be fair, the reason I wanted to review this book was simply to have it in my possession. It being a gorgeous bound and embossed volume with matte paper that beautifully brings out the 242 sketches, maps, plans,…
Bring the abnormal back in hieratic
After three delightful popular books about entrepreneurs in ancient Egypt (two of which were female, see reviews here and here), Koen Donker van Heel is back with a fourth installment in the series. Dealing with the Dead in ancient Egypt: The Funerary Business of Petebaste (AUC Press) is about a mortuary priest (choachyte) living in…
People of the Cobra Province
With The People of the Cobra Province in Egypt (Oxbow Books, 2020), Wolfram Grajetzki attempts to write a ‘history from below’ of the Wadjet nome, a province south of Asyut in Middle Egypt. Here, about 5000 burials have been uncovered of the farming population, many of which are poor surface burials. Little Old and Middle…
Order and chaos in Assassin’s Creed: Origins
So it took me a while to start playing Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and the truth is, I haven’t finished it. I who am scared of dying in videogames ever since Super Mario Bros on the original NES, has been roaming Ptolemaic Egypt for over 80 hours now, sneaking up on countless Romans in order to…
Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt
In the past few years, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has had an active policy of reporting new discoveries in Egypt on a frequent basis, to keep Egypt positively in the news as well as interest tourists in visiting the country. Indeed tourism has largely picked up again since the 2011 revolution, and in the…
From the bust of Nefertiti to the head of Tutankhamun
When Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley visited Bolton Museum as a child, she was unaware that the bust of Nefertiti she admired there was in fact a replica. She soon found copies of the work popping up in museums around England. The original bust was first displayed when the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun was causing…
Book review: The Ancient Egyptian Economy
Brian Muhs, The Ancient Egyptian Economy: 3000–30 BCE Cambridge University Press, 2016 ISBN: 9781316286364 During my Egyptology studies in Leiden I repeatedly followed the course in Demotic Papyrology by Brian Muhs. Repeatedly, because it took a while before the penny dropped, if ever it did. In class we read fantastical stories about Setne Khamwas, the…