Following Odysseus Not the end of the world Amarna city of light ...

ookreviewsThe Pharaoh: Life at Court and on CampaignGarry J ShawThames & Hudson224pp, 233 illustrations, 172 in colourHardback, £24.95What was it like to be one of the mostpowerful rulers of the ancient world? Howdid someone become king of Egypt? Whatdid a pharaoh do in his leisure time? Theseare some of the many questions tackled byGarry J Shaw, whose research focuses on thedaily lives of the pharaohs, in his lively andcolourful new book.Shaw, who teaches at the EgyptExploration Society, follows the great rulersfrom the bedchamber to the battlefield.As well as exploring the evolution and ideologyof kingship and what it was like tobe regarded as a god, he also investigatesthe personal life of the pharaoh – his recreationalpursuits, family life, diet and healthproblems. Pets were not unknown in theroyal palaces of Egypt – cats and dogs werepopular and some were so beloved that theywere buried in their own tombs.Quotations from original texts enliven thenarrative, as in the chapter describing all theroyal cities of Ancient Egypt in which theearliest, Memphis, sounds like a kind of paradise:‘her granaries are full of barley andemmer, her lakes are full of lotus-buds…The noble ladies of Memphis sit at leisure,hands bowed down with [festive] foliageand greenery’.All this is set within a clear historicalframework, well described in ChapterTwo, ‘The Story of Two Lands’, and,at the end of the book, there is a usefulcheck-list of all the pharaohs, fromPredynastic times to the Roman period,giving biographies of the most important.54Ancient Egypt: A Guide to the MonumentsWilliam MurnanePallas Athene,3rd edition revised by Aidan Dodson418pp, 34 colour and numerous black andwhite plates, maps, plans, and sectionsPaperback, £19.99Aided by plans, maps and good illustrations,this chunky, well-written culturalguidebook not only takes the traveller ona thorough and informative tour of Egypt’sancient monuments, but also gives a conciseinsight into the long history of the country.The author does not confine himself tothe Pharaonic past, Christian, Coptic andIslamic sites are included, as is the developmentof archaeology:‘Gone are the freewheeling days of exploration– of unsupervised digs and the gifteddilettante floating down the Nile on hishouseboat; the specialist has replaced thegentleman at large… To some there is asense of lost romance: certainly nothingwithin the last 90 years has matched theexcitement that greeted the discovery ofTutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. What is generallyforgotten is that this excavation wasa model for its time, marking a new era ofprofessionalism in field archaeology…’.From Siwa Oasis in the Western Desert toSt Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, eachancient monument is beautifully described,made clearer by plans, maps and sections,and the visitor is also given a suggestedroute to make sure nothing is overlooked.At the back of the book there is a capsulelist of all the pharaohs and a descriptionof their reigns, and also a guide to thecities and towns of Egypt; for example:‘Aswan is truly the jewel of theNile. The river runs cold and clear,splashing and swirling around the cliffsand jagged outcroppings. In this land ofthe First Cataract, the Nile has lost its bufferof cultivation, and endless waves of goldensand swirl against its banks.’There is, however, only a small sectiongiving practical information; another book,or an internet search, would be needed foradvice on hotels, restaurants and so on.Egyptian Hieroglyphs for CompleteBeginners: The Revolutionary NewApproach to reading the MonumentsBill ManleyThames & Hudson160pp, 45 illustrationsHardback, £12.95For students who never quite got to gripswith Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar, thisbook may come as a godsend. In the prefacethere is further good news for thosewith no Latin or Greek when Bill Manley,who has 25 years’ experience of teachinghieroglyphs, announces: ‘The way thisbook works assumes you have no particularknowledge of any foreign language, ancientor modern, and no particular knowledge ofgrammar or specialized terminology’.Furthermore this is no traditional grammarbook or primer as he explains: ‘… theapproach here has been organized arounda sequence of monuments, which you areinvited to examine and read right from thestart’. So, off you go, starting with a stelaof Mereri from his tomb at Denderah,circa 2200 BC, and ending up with hieroglyphson the wall of the offering-chapel ofSareput II at Aswan, circa 1850 BC.The epilogue includes useful lists of namesof kings and gods and hieroglyphic signs. Iam sure that Champollion would approve,although perhaps through gritted teeth.Lindsay FulcherMinerva November/December 2012