Unwrapping Ancient Egypt

First runner-up for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies 2015. In ancient Egypt, wrapping sacred objects, including mummified bodies, in layers of cloth was a ritual that lay at the core of Egyptian society. Yet in the modern world, attention has focused instead on unwrapping all the careful arrangements of linen textiles the Egyptians had put in place. This book breaks new ground by looking at the significance of textile wrappings in ancient Egypt, and at how their unwrapping has shaped the way we think about the Egyptian past. Wrapping mummified bodies and divine statues in linen reflected the cultural values attached to this textile, with implications for understanding gender, materiality and hierarchy in Egyptian society. Unwrapping mummies and statues similarly reflects the values attached to Egyptian antiquities in the West, where the colonial legacies of archaeology, Egyptology and racial science still influence how Egypt appears in museums and the press. From the tomb of Tutankhamun to the Arab Spring, Unwrapping Ancient Egypt raises critical questions about the deep-seated fascination with this culture – and what that fascination says about our own.

Horemkenesi was an Egyptian priest and official who lived at Thebes in the eleventh century B.C. The unwrapping and scientific examination of his mummified body (the last such investigation to have been carried out in Britain) provided a rare opportunity to study the remains of a known historical figure using the most sophisticated technology and methods of analysis. By combining the results of this study with information from inscriptions on Horemkenesi's coffin and rock graffiti recording his work in the cemeteries of Thebes, it is possible to build up a fascinating picture of the life, death, and mummification of an ancient Egyptian. The first part of this book considers Horemkenesi's life and work against the backdrop of Upper Egypt in the troubled times of the early Twentieth Dynasty. The second part concentrates on the unwrapping of the mummy: its careful planning, how the delicate operation was carried out, and what discoveries were made. What did Horemkenesi look like? How old was he at death? What was the state of his health? Why did the embalmers not remove his brain, and why were his internal organs missing? These and other questions are answered in this stimulating book.

"THE PYRAMIDS ARE THE OLDEST MONUMENTS OF CIVILIZATION ON THE EARTH. THESE STRUCTURES AND THE RELICS THEY CONTAIN ARE THE MOST TANGIBLE PHYSICAL LINKS WITH OUR ANCIENT PAST AND PROVIDE IMPORTANT CLUES TO OUR ORIGINS." -From the Introduction Mummies, pyramids, and pharaohs! The culture and civilization of the ancient Egyptians have fascinated people for centuries. However, in recent years, liberal teachers and professors have used the traditional Egyptian chronology to undermine the truth of the biblical record in Exodus. Authors David Down and John Ashton present a groundbreaking new chronology in Unwrapping the Pharaohs that supports the biblical account. Go back in time as famous Egyptians such as the boy-king Tutankhamen, the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, and the beautiful Cleopatra are brought to life. Learn who the pharaoh of the Exodus was and where his pyramid is in this captivating new look at Egyptian history. Gives a new chronology, which confirms the Old Testament accounts of Moses, The Exodus, and Joseph. Fascinating facts about ancient Egyptian civilization and life. Complete with over 300 beautiful full-color photographs.

From Roman villas to Hollywood films, ancient Egypt has been a source of fascination and inspiration in many other cultures. But why, exactly, has this been the case? In this book, Christina Riggs examines the history, art, and religion of ancient Egypt to illuminate why it has been so influential throughout the centuries. In doing so, she shows how the ancient past has always been used to serve contemporary purposes. Often characterized as a lost civilization that was discovered by adventurers and archeologists, Egypt has meant many things to many different people. Ancient Greek and Roman writers admired ancient Egyptian philosophy, and this admiration would influence ideas about Egypt in Renaissance Europe as well as the Arabic-speaking world. By the eighteenth century, secret societies like the Freemasons looked to ancient Egypt as a source of wisdom, but as modern Egypt became the focus of Western military strategy and economic exploitation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its ancient remains came to be seen as exotic, primitive, or even dangerous, tangled in the politics of racial science and archaeology. The curse of the pharaohs or the seductiveness of Cleopatra were myths that took on new meanings in the colonial era, while ancient Egypt also inspired modernist, anti-colonial movements in the arts, such as in the Harlem Renaissance and Egyptian Pharaonism. Today, ancient Egypt—whether through actual relics or through cultural homage—can be found from museum galleries to tattoo parlors. Riggs helps us understand why this “lost civilization” continues to be a touchpoint for defining—and debating—who we are today.

Calling all explorers and archaeologists! Inside Out: Egyptian Mummy comes with everything you need to start an Egyptian adventure from the outset to discovering a tomb, to unwrapping a mummy. Though the ancient civilization of Egypt may be long gone, its dead still have secrets to tell. From the myth of Isis and Osiris, to King Tut’s tomb, to the intricacies of preparing the body for its underworld journey, Inside Out: Egyptian Mummy takes you step by step into a tomb. Get a fascinating glimpse into how an ancient culture saw death and the afterlife beyond. That isn't all though! Alongside beautiful illustrations and photographs, an interactive die-cut model reveals the many rites of the Egyptian tomb. You will be amazed by everything from the iconic golden burial mask, to the lucky amulets the dead were buried with, protective linen wrappings, and even the mummified body and preserved sacred organs. And when it comes to hieroglyphics, hidden burial grounds, and missing treasure, there’s always more to uncover, so get your start now, who knows where your journeys will take you!

Describes the ancient Egyptian practice of preserving the dead through the process of mummification and explains what scientists have learned from unwrapping and examining mummies.

Explores the variety of arts produced in Egypt over a span of 3,500 years. Examing the stories behind these objects and buildings, Riggs looks not only at what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian life, but also how their legacy continues to shape the contemporary world.

They are among the most famous and compelling photographs ever made in archaeology: Howard Carter kneeling before the burial shrines of Tutankhamun; life-size statues of the boy king on guard beside a doorway, tantalizingly sealed, in his tomb; or a solid gold coffin still draped with flowers cut more than 3,300 years ago. Yet until now, no study has explored the ways in which photography helped mythologize the tomb of Tutankhamun, nor the role photography played in shaping archaeological methods and interpretations, both in and beyond the field. This book undertakes the first critical analysis of the photographic archive formed during the ten-year clearance of the tomb, and in doing so explores the interface between photography and archaeology at a pivotal time for both. Photographing Tutankhamun foregrounds photography as a material, technical, and social process in early 20th-century archaeology, in order to question how the photograph made and remade ‘ancient Egypt’ in the waning age of colonial order.