Mini Reviews | Ancient Egypt

 

I love Ancient Egypt so much. I want to visit and see all there is to see of that world. It also infuriates me that so much has been lost to history - and continues to be lost as smuggled pieces magically make their way to private collections. Egypt has been robbed of so much and deserves to get their history back.

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Absolutely LOVED this one and could not put it down. Easily one of my top-five favorite books on Ancient Egypt. It's the perfect combination of academic and accessible for those who are not as fond of non-fiction as I am.

When one thinks of Ancient Egypt, most likely the first thing that pops into your head has something to do with tombs, mummies, the pyramids, etc. After all, these items make up much of the visible remains of this mighty culture - and mummies + funerary items travel well, all over the world on display.

In this text Dr. Naunton's primary focus is on what we HAVEN'T found yet - such as the tombs of some of the most famous rulers to ever live; think Cleopatra, Alexander, Nefertiti, and Imhotep (I know, I know, he was never Pharaoh, but he's still a big deal). Just think about that line-up for a second and what it would be like if even ONE were to come to light. People would go batshit crazy over it, and rightly so. I would be one of those people.

Yet he also looks at those at the reigns of some more obscure rulers as well, thus giving a well-rounded picture of the whole of Egypt's ancient world and not just those that blockbuster movies are made about. I found these lesser-known rulers' reigns to be just as fascinating as those mentioned above.

Here the author takes deep look into the lives of these rulers and what they accomplished in their time on the throne. Based on incredibly detailed scholarship, he also discusses what their tombs likely contained, how they were buried, and why their tombs have remained undiscovered for centuries. even better, he lays out how they might yet be found.

I appreciated the variety of images that accompanied the text, both color and black and white. The maps came in handy as well - as did the list of kings he included. I think we can all agree that scholarship on this massive period of time is far from complete, but this list with dates is the most up-to-date we have at the moment. And honestly that's what continues to draw people to Ancient Egypt - there's still so much more to discover.

This a must for anyone who happily "suffers" from Egyptomania. Absolutely brilliant. You will not be disappointed.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another great read from Brian M. Fagan, one of the leading experts on this most ancient world. We meet a wide variety of people from many different periods, many who had one thing in common: they were super fucking greedy.

This mainly applies to the tomb robbers who beat modern archaeologists to these finds by thousands of years, to those who paid well for pieces to be spirited out of the country and into private collections. And even today, with so many artifacts on display around the world, sitting in museums far from their place of origin. These artifacts MUST be returned to Egypt, though I highly doubt it will ever happen unfortunately.

Fagan also introduces us to fledgling archaeologists, some who did their best to protect and preserve their finds and others who all but ripped stones, pillars, obelisks, etc. from their resting places.

The author tells the story in chronological order and it's not terribly hard to see why so many artifacts were lost - France and England both somehow thought that they had the rights to another country's history, and could tell that history better than Egypt. It's such a gross perspective. There were of course archaeologists who were in it for the history and not the money, but money ruled over everything else, and still does today. It certainly did not help that there were those within local government positions in Egypt who gladly took the money and handed over the history. Basically, the whole system sucked.

The first volume of this book was published in 1974, but I read the revised edition that came out in 2004. There was much to update and Fagan writes just as passionately about the newer discoveries as he did the earlier ones. He also does not shy away from critiquing the tourist industry and explains what should be obvious - tourism might be crucial to the economy, but it is destroying the very things tourists come to see and if not better protected, they will not survive. Stricter guidelines have been put in place over the years, and hopefully they are enough.

Fagan does a marvelous job bringing to life many of those who sought Egypt's ancient artifacts. yet he does an even better job with those who sought to preserve the history and keep it where it belongs. Incredible attention to detail and brilliantly written.

Highly recommended.

Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr

Rating: 2.5 Stars

I hate math. I mean, I really hate it. It made me miserable for years. What made my misery ever worse is that my mom is really good at math, so I could never understand when she would try to explain my homework to me, and she could never understand why I couldn't understand her.

It might seem strange then, that I am completely obsessed with Hypatia, a mathematician who lived over 1500 years ago. Part of the allure I think, is that we know so little about her - kind of like Boudicca, another fabulously fierce heroine my daughter will some day know all about. Or, know as much as she can, given how little concrete information we have about either of these women.

And therein, of course, lies the problem. There is so little information about Hypatia herself, that one can hardly write an entire book about her, Instead, one would have to not only include the facts we do know, but give explanation of the times she lived in, the math and philosophy she worked on, and so forth. 

That is exactly what the author does, and really it is almost too much. The math alone is very in-depth and academic. I am all for scholarly and academic texts, I read them often. But for someone like myself who is predisposed to hate math because that gene skipped me somehow, this was like reading a text book at times. I wanted to like this book and for it to be everything I was looking for, but it can't. That is no fault of the author, he did the best he could with the information he had to work with, but there is simply not enough know for certain to fill a book.

The author uses what sources still exist to flesh out Hypatia and at least give her a form - but in truth we do not even know what she looked liked. I appreciate though, that there is not a lot of conjecture here. In truth, very little of the book is about Hypatia. Without beating a dead horse too much, there just is not enough info.

So, I can really only recommend this one to people who love math. Hypatia is there of course, and we know what we can. Sadly though, that is not much and I fear that will never change.

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind

Rating: 5 Stars

Review:

I never knew how little I actually knew about Alexandria until I read this book. The first book I read of Pollard's was about Alfred the Great and I absolutely loved it, it was well-researched and beautifully written. The Rise and Fall of Alexandria is no different. It is truly so beautiful and lovely and depressing to read about this great center of academia, and THAT library, and after centuries of surviving, it's just gone. Based solely on the book's content, I would give this a solid four stars, but given my love of all things academic and library-ish, I had to go with five stars.

There are so many directions I might go with this review, so many things to discuss and dissect, to relate to our modern world, I don't think I would have the space or time to even attempt that. So instead I will just touch briefly on some of the things that were most intriguing to me.

The book begins where you would expect - with the founding of the city. There is a solid foundation, figuratively, to build the rest of the book on. We are given a background of Alexander and Ptolemy take-over after Alexander's death. As time went on, the library accumulated more and more knowledge, just imagine all those scrolls, all that history in one place.

"Alexandria was built on knowledge, and at its heart was not a treasury but the greatest library and museum of antiquity" (introduction).

But, Alexandria was so much more than just the library and museums, if that is even possible. Truth be told, that is really all I knew of the great city prior to picking this one up, aside from knowledge too of its famous founder - who did not live long enough to see the glorious crown jewel of his empire reach its full potential.

I found the medical information to be among the most interesting facts (I mean seriously, despite the plethora of mathematicians who lived and worked in Alexandria, we all should know by now how I feel about math. I think it is a testament to how enthralling Alexandria is that I was able to muster through those sections - I am NOT a number gal!) Given my love for all things medieval England/Ireland/Scotland, I was familiar with the idea of the four humors, but did not know much about what they represented or how this information was used. Here the author goes into a bit of detail when discussing medical practices that were developed in Alexandria, including the understanding of anatomy. The disturbing way they came about this knowledge was that doctors were given LIVE condemned prisoners to experiment and operate on, so...not all was perfect in the city.

One of the both high- and low-lights of this one for me was a whole chapter dedicated to Hypatia. It's a highlight because she is such a fascinating figure in history, and while there is not a lot of information known about her, there is enough that tells us she is certainly someone who was held in esteem. The low-light of course would be her cruel and violent death, and the fact that Cyril played such a role in it and that later he was even raised to sainthood. That is a travesty to me.

"With the death of Hypatia, her city also began to die. Philosophers were still to found in the city's streets and the 'Alexandrian school' continued quietly - ever more quietly - to refine pagan Neoplatonism" (page 280). 

Overall, I really loved this one. I can highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in non-fiction. Even if you do not know much about this time period, the people, this city, the library, it is a great starting point. It is also great for those who already have a knowledge of any of those topics, as the detail and research is quite evident.

And oh, what I would not give to see that library in its full glory.

"And what of the books? The fate of the libraries of Alexandria is one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world. It would still be tragic, but at least convenient, if a single moment of their destruction could be found, a moment at which the curtain came down on the classical world and a new and darker age commenced" (page 281).