Egyptophile.com - Dedicated to the Study of Ancient Egypt

Book Reviews

Genesis of the Pharaohs: Genesis of the 'Ka' and Crowns?

by Toby Wilkinson, 2003

Very thorough and thought-provoking review book on the Predynastic , written by Timothy Kendall. Well worth reading.

http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/crown.html

Divine Creatures

by Salima Ikram

Good review in Egypt Today Magazine, May, 2005.

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5043

Tales of Peter Rabbit

by Potter, Beatrix,

translated into hieroglyphs by J.F. Nunn and R. B. Parkinson,

The British Museum Press, 2005. ISBN #0-7141-1969-5.

This is a wonderful small book, 4" by 5 ½ " in size, which is just right for those of us who are still children at heart. Beatrix Potter’s original drawings illustrate each page of text.

Mr. Nunn and Mr. Parkinson give a brief introduction in which they discuss the difficulties of translating modern British English into Ancient Egyptian. Frequently, the appropriate word simply does not appear to exist, so they have made do with such things as "Peter Linen-Tail" as cotton was not present. Bill Petty takes exception to the use of "Linen-Tail", feeling that "Wooly" or "Woolen" tail would be more accurate. He bases this on the fact that cotton is fluffy; linen is not fluffy; wool is fluffy. There was a plentiful supply of wool in Ancient Egypt. I tend to agree with him. There were no wheelbarrows, so they used the ancient word for sledge. The text is entirely in hieroglyphs, with no translation, so you are on your own! However, the translators have provided footnotes whenever they have dealt with a difficult non-translatable word.

This book is a wonderfully amusing way to practice what you learned in hieroglyphs classes, and is done by eminent scholars in the field.

Cost was L 6.99, or around $15.00 with shipping. Their website is www.britishmuseum.co.uk .

Reviewed by - Ellen LeBlanc

Into The Mummy's Tomb - Mysterious Tales of Mummies and Ancient Egypt

Edited by John Richard Stephens

copyrighted 1999, 2006,

Barnes & Noble, Inc. by arrangement with Fern Canyon Press.

337 pages. Hardback.

ISBN-13:978-0-7607-8536-2

ISBN-10:0-7607-8536-8

If you are the sort of egyptophile who is mad for mummies, this is the book for you! It is a collection of factual and fictional tales about mummies by some of the leading Egyptologists and literary figures of modern times, and even includes one tale written by a "An Ancient Egyptian Priest" about 300 B.C.

Editor John Richard Stephens begins the book with an introduction entitled, "The Truth of the Mummy’s Curse", a subject near and dear to all who love mummies and mummy movies, as he does. The book continues with factual accounts of experiences with mummies written by such notables as Arthur Weigall, Howard Carter, Amelia Edwards, Theodore Davis, and Giovanni Belzoni. Louisa May Alcott writes her own story of a mummy’s curse, while Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tells a story of "The Ring of Thoth". A real buried treasure in this book is Tennessee Williams’ very first published story, written when he was just sixteen years old, "The Vengeance of Nitocris". Agatha Christie, H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Twain, Sir H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, and Bram Stoker also have wonderful little-known works in this volume. Surprisingly, science fiction writer Ray Bradbury had a wonderful contribution here, also. Sax Rohmer's tale of "The Death-Ring of Sneferu" is a treat, and one would expect such a well-done collection to be rounded out with a story by Elizabeth Peters and one by the Queen of the Dark, Anne Rice.

It is rare to find a book worth having for both its’ literary value and its' use as a research tool, but this is it! I highly recommend it as a real treat for your summer reading list.

Reviewed by - Ellen LeBlanc

Akhenaten:Egypt's False Prophet
by Dr. Nicholas Reeves
Thames & Hudson, 2001.
208 pages, 141 Illustrations, 23 in color
ISBN 0-500-05106-2

Dr. Reeves' book examines much more than simply the reign of the controversial pharaoh Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten. It is a lucidly written, well-illustrated examination of the whole fabric upon which this pharaoh’s reign was woven
.
He begins with a thorough description of the archaeological history of the actual site of el-Amarna, beginning with its' first mention in modern times by Claude Sicard in 1714, and continuing through the present time.He then sets the stage for the reign of Akhenaten by examining the major figures of the 18th Dynasty who preceded the rebel pharaoh. In this, he gives particular weight to the role of the priests of Amun and to Hatshepsut, whom he frankly describes as a usurper supported by the great weight of the cult of Amun. He believes that Tutmosis III was forced to step gently early in his reign so as not to bring down the forces of Amun upon himself, and therefore delayed his attack on "his hated stepmother’s memory"
until the last years of his reign

During the reigns of Tutmosis IV and Amenhotep III, Dr. Reeves finds that there was an increasing tension building between the priests of Amun at Thebes and the priests at Heliopolis, the ancient worship center for the sun god Re, with the pharaohs attempting to curb the power of Amun by enhancing the power of the sun god. In the reign of Amenhotep III, however, Dr. Reeves finds the military coming into play as a neutralizer of the power of the priesthood.
Dr. Reeves discusses the arguments in favor of a long and a short co-regency between Amenhotep III and his son, the future Akhenaten, and comes down firmly on the side of a short co-regency, then sets forth the case that an unidentified highly damaged mummy found in KV 55 by Theodore Davis is indeed the body of the missing pharaoh Akenaten, and suggesting that its' age is "in excess of 35 years", implying that he ascended the throne as a teenager.
As to the character of Akhenaten, Dr. Reeves finds him to be arrogant and egocentric, though intelligent and well versed in the theology of his time. He began his reign with a clear idea of his mission and a determination to share it with Egypt. By year 5 he had changed his name to Akhenaten, "He who is effective on the Aten's behalf", and had declared himself to be the Aten's sole representative on earth.
Shortly after this, he began the establishment of a new capital city at Amarna. There follows a very detailed description of the city of Akhetaten and its environs.

As for the inspiration of the new religion, Dr. Reeves believes that it was a mix of the religious, intellectual, and political. He finds that the famous "Hymn to the Aten" borrows freely from a variety of sources and that in the final analysis, it says that no one can know or contact the Aten except for Akhenaten. This proves to be a very cold sort of comfort for the people of Egypt, as it distances them from all of the comfort provided by the earlier pantheon. Dr. Reeves believes that Akhenaten was very likely kin to our modern concept of a dictator, and that the cozy domestic scenes shown everywhere are "as far from the reality of dictator as possible. Many modern parallels could be cited—the Fuhrer patting his dog, Stalin with his reassuring pipe, the beatific Mao Tse-Tung."

This book is well worth reading, as Dr. Reeves' reasons for drawing his conclusions are clearly set out in a very lucid manner.

Reviewed by Ellen LeBlanc

From Pharaoh's Lips: Ancient Egyptian Language In The Arabic of Today

Youssef, Ahmad Abdel-Hamed, introduced by Fayza Haikal, illustrations by Golo,

American University in Cairo Press, 2003. www.aucpress.com

131 pages.

ISBN 977-424-708-6

This small book was written by Ahmad Abdel-Hamid Youssef, who is a professor of Egyptology at al-Azhar University in Cairo and has been vice-presidend of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization. The book begins with a description of the progression of language from Ancient Egyptian through Coptic and finally into Arabic. He gives you a standard "sign-transliteration-pronunciation" table for Ancient Egyptian, but then goes on to do the same thing for Coptic and for Arabic. Each surviving word that he discusses in the book is given in all these forms-hieroglyph, transliteration, Coptic, and Arabic, with meanings.

The book is written in the form of short excerpts from the daily life of modern Egyptian peasants, showing how they constantly are using words and concepts which are survivals from their distant ancestors. At the end, there is a chapter full of wise sayings which have survived virtually intact, in meaning if not totally in pronunciation. One fascinating detail for me was his description of how the modern Egyptians use first the most distant language of their ancestors when talking to their babies and toddlers. One example of a surviving saying is, "He came with diarrhea," a literal translation from Ancient Egyptian to Coptic to Arabic for a man who approaches his superior incontinent with fear.

It ends with three glossaries, one for hieroglyphs, one for Coptic, and one for Arabic.

Golo, a leading Egyptian cartoonist, supplies line drawing illustrations to liven up the text.

Review by Ellen LeBlanc