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Egyptology Today. Edited by Richard H. Wilkinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp. xiii + 283, illus. $85 (cloth); $29.99 (paper).
Richard Wilkinson has pulled together an excellent introduction to the variety of approaches that are currently in use for understanding the world of ancient Egypt. While the public may generally equate Egyptology with archaeology (and more specifically with the discovery of "exciting" finds), and while in the past an uncritical textual approach was privileged in Egyptology, the subject today takes advantage of the wide range of evidence that has survived. This includes texts and artifacts, but also human remains, art, and even landscapes. To analyze and interpret any of these types of primary sources, today's scholar must be versed in the current scholarship within that discipline and be able to apply the relevant theories and methodologies - and this is made clear in this edited volume.
The themes of the book emphasize that the chapters are not meant to present an overview of ancient Egyptian culture or history, but of Egyptology itself. These themes are "Approaches: Paths to the Ancient Past," "Monuments: Structures for This Life and the Next," "Art and Artifacts: Objects as Subject," and "Text: The Words of Gods and Men."
Kent Weeks' chapter kicks off the first theme with a balanced and thorough history of the inconsistent application of archaeology in Egyptology. He traces its delayed acceptance as a legitimate scholarly discipline (his example of Howard Vyse's use of gunpowder as a survey tool illustrates only one of a series of indignities to which ancient Egyptian remains have been subjected) to the current improvements in the field. Weeks usefully provides a list of links to six current projects that demonstrate the advances that have been made in the application of current archaeology to Egyptology.
A different tone is taken in "History and Egyptology" by Donald Redford, who begins with an eloquent yet scathing rebuke of the state of historiography (both Egyptian and Classical). The many problems that besiege a scholar attempting to take this path are unstintingly set forth, including the common lack of attention to orality studies. An example or two of positive models in terms of historiography would have been useful in this chapter - although perhaps the author...