I’m an archaeologist by training and a journalist by profession. During my long career as a staff writer at National Geographic magazine, and now as a freelance Nat Geo book editor and author, I have often written about the ancient world and cultural heritage preservation. I was very lucky to be sent to Egypt on a number of occasions to write stories about sites and discoveries, and I have now come to specialize in Egyptology. I recently took an online course that taught me how to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. I’m still in glyph kindergarten, but every new sign I learn is allowing me to better understand—and interpret—the culture of the pharaohs.
I wrote
Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs: 100 Discoveries That Changed the World
The history of ancient Egypt spans more than 3,000 years. That’s a lot to keep track of!
This book is a great guide, breaking it all down dynasty by dynasty and reign by reign.
Want to know what the Old Kingdom was about? It’s in here.
Want to know all of King Tut’s names? They’re in here too, spelled out for modern readers and drawn in hieroglyphs as well.
I’ve been studying and writing about ancient Egypt for decades now, and I still need a cheat sheet from time to time. Chronicle of the Pharaohs is one of my go-to reference books and sits on a shelf close at hand in my office.
The dates that Egyptologists use for most rulers are guesstimates, and there’s not one fixed dating scheme.
Just for instance, one reference volume gives 1334-1325 B.C. as the dates for King Tut’s reign. Another says 1332-1322 B.C. And yet a third another has 1336-1327 B.C.
How do you know which one to believe?
During the three decades I worked as a staff writer at National Geographic magazine, we relied on the king list that Baines and Malek published in this book.
I still consider it as the last word on dates for my own research. It’s also full of very helpful maps, diagrams, and descriptions of archaeological sites all over Egypt.
Filled with fascinating facts and stunning images, this single-volume reference to ancient Egypt introduces readers to this unique, sometimes startling culture.
Want to know about magic bricks? You can look them up in this book, along with a lot of other intriguing things.
Sure, you can find descriptions online. But there’s a lot of misinformation out there in the e-sphere. It’s much better to rely on something published by the august British Museum, which has been showcasing artifacts from the ancient world since 1753. I always do.
This successful and highly-esteemed British Museum reference work is now republished in a new pocket-sized edition. This authoritative illustrated dictionary provides clear explanations and descriptions of the important ideas, events and personalities throughout four thousand years of Egyptian civilization. More than 600 extensively cross-referenced and comprehensively-indexed A-Z entries provide detailed information on all aspects of ancient Egypt and Nubia during the pharaonic and Graeco-Roman periods. Each entry is followed by a bibliography. The dictionary is lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs, line drawings, site plans and maps.
I bought this catalogue many years ago in the crowded, chaotic store that used to sell books just inside the front door of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
It remains one of the best sources for descriptions of artifacts displayed in the museum for many decades—everything from King Tut’s gold mask to lifelike statues of scribes, detailed models of boats, and illustrated passages from the Book of the Dead on sheets of papyrus.
Many of these artifacts have recently been transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) and other state-of-the-art facilities. I’m going to have to start noting in this book where my favorite things have ended up.
The discovery of King Tut’s tomb is still one of the most extraordinary events in the entire history of archaeology. It was an almost intact royal burial from a time when Egypt was at one of its peaks of power, wealth, and influence.
The find was big news in 1922, and the eye-popping artifacts it contained would influence modern art, architecture, and fashion for years as archaeologist Howard Carter catalogued Tut’s personal effects and carefully removed them from the stone-cut funerary chambers.
Nicholas Reeves details the search for the tomb, the men who were engaged in it, and the triumphant moment of discovery. He also describes some of the 5,000 things meant for Tut’s use in the afterlife, from furniture and food to clean sets of linen underwear.
The Tomb of Tutankhamun, with its breathtaking treasures, has exerted a unique hold on the popular imagination ever since its discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. It remains the greatest tomb find ever made. This is the fullest account yet published of the world's greatest archaeological discovery.
Contents include: * the story of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon's long quest for the tomb in the Valley of the Kings * double-page features on each stage of the discovery, each chamber of the tomb, and all the main treasures * extracts from Carter's notes and diaries and first-time publication of many…
Archaeology is the key that unlocks our deepest history. Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs reveals the stories behind the most intriguing and impactful of those finds and showcases the people who first presented them to the world.
Blending high adventure with history, this book chronicles 100 astonishing archaeological discoveries dating from 50,000 million years ago until modern times. Each account in this book relies on firsthand reports from explorers, antiquarians, and scientists as they crack secret codes, evade looters and political suppression, fall in love, commit a litany of blunders, and uncover ancient curses. Spanning six continents, this enlightening narrative tells the story of human civilization.
I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.
The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.
No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…
October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…
