Dyan Hilton

Something of a specialist book. Ancient Egypt probably attracts more junk science, pseudoscience, etc. than any other culture. Theories generally fall into the following categories:


* The ancient Egyptians knew various esoteric secrets, which they helpfully encoded into the design of the pyramids, the Sphinx, various temples, the Book of the Dead, etc.


* The pyramids were built by space aliens or Atlanteans or biblical patriarchs, by levitating rock or cutting it with lasers or pouring it from concrete, etc.


* Various aspects of Egyptian history correlate with various Bible stories, including the Flood, the Joseph story, the Exodus, the visit of the Queen of Sheba, etc.


This book helps with the last, by making some sense (well, not perfect sense, but at least some) out of the Third Intermediate Period. The problem that fundamentalist Biblical chronologists have is that internal evidence from the Bible (the “begats”, etc.) puts the Unified Monarchy in the late Bronze Age, while archeological and Egyptian textual evidence makes Canaan/Israel/Palestine an Egyptian colony at that time, with no sign of David or Solomon. In order to make Biblical chronology work, you have to move the Unified Monarchy into the Early Iron Age, and since all Middle Eastern chronology is tied to Egypt the only way to do that is to somehow subtract a big chunk from conventional Egyptian history. And since Egyptian history before and after the Third Intermediate Period is pretty well nailed down by astronomical evidence (although that hasn’t stopped people like Immanuel Velikovsy and Lynn Rose from trying) the 3rdIP is the best place to remove a couple of centuries. The genealogical tables in this book help sort out the mess caused by various minor Egyptian kingdoms all ruling simultaneously during the 3rdIP (and all claiming to rule the entire country). It helps that one of the authors is responsible for tracking down a previously unknown pharaoh (Sheshonq V).


Another fascinating little item is a list of all 94 known sons and daughters of Ramses II. Given actuarial reality, it’s fairly likely that with that base to start from, there are direct lineal descendents of Ramses II alive today. Probably some of you who are reading this, in fact.


I also liked the genealogical tables of the Ptolemys. My interest in Egypt has usually stopped with the last native pharaoh, Nakhtnebef, so I didn’t know much about the Macedonian rulers. The Ptolemys were an amazingly bloodthirsty lot, with husbands murdering wives, mothers killing sons, and every other variety of relational mayhem. Still creepy 20 centuries later.… (more)