Read more
To secure a comfortable afterlife, ancient Egyptians built fortress-like tombs and filled them with precious goods, a practice that generated staggering quantities of artefacts over the course of many millennia, but one which has also drawn thieves and tomb-raiders to Egypt since antiquity.
Drawing on modern scholarship, reportage and period sources, this book tracks the history of treasure-seekers in Egypt and the social contexts in which they operated, revealing striking continuities throughout time. Readers will recognize the foibles of todays politicians and con artists, the perils of materialism, and the cycles of public compliance and dissent in the face of injustice. In describing an age-old pursuit and its timeless motivations, A Short History of Tomb-Raiding shows how much we have in common with our Bronze Age ancestors.
About the author
Long-time resident of Egypt, Maria Golia is the author of critically acclaimed non-fiction, including Cairo: City of Sand (2004), Photography and Egypt (2009) and Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure (2020), all published by Reaktion Books.
Summary
A history of tomb-raiders in Egypt since antiquity.
Report
A Short History of Tomb-Raiding' is a book of wonders, a latter-day Book of the Dead. In a wide-ranging and eloquent account of tomb robbery in Egypt across the millennia and right up to the present day we are presented with a parade of pharaohs, priests, embalmers, builders of pyramids, death-dealing robots, tomb robbers, sorcerers, jinn, geomancers, confidence tricksters, rubes and archaeologists. Maria Golia has written an exhilarating masterpiece of social and intellectual history.', Robert Irwin, consulting Middle East editor at the Times Literary Supplement, and author of 'Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography'
'Maria Golia skilfully combines secret passages, blind alleys, priest, plunderers, magicians and mummies to explore the venerable tradition of tomb raiding in Egypt. Vividly written and filled with unusual illustrations, this book is a must for anyone interested in Egypt, the secret books of treasure hunters and the antiquities trade.', Salima Ikram, Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology, The American University in Cairo, and author of 'Ancient Egypt: An Introduction'
'The history of tomb-raiding ranges across the boundaries between fact and fantasy, archaeology and magic, scholarship and crime. It extends from Greek and Roman treasure hunters to Arab sorcerers, necropolis-dwelling clans to European adventurers, and forms a continuous narrative that connects the age of the pharaohs to the academic experts and museum collections of today. Maria Golia is a deeply informed chronicler of Egypt ancient and modern, and this is a panoramic and gloriously illustrated survey of its fabled secrets, treasures and wonders.', Mike Jay, author of 'Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic'
'This book is a must read. Maria Golia creatively and accurately connects the ancient with the modern to narrate an engaging history of Egypt through the greed of pilferers and treasure hunters, the collusion of rulers and the swell of popular revolts.', Alaa Al Aswany, author of 'The Yacoubian Building'
