1st Edition

Histories of Egyptology Interdisciplinary Measures

Edited By William Carruthers Copyright 2014
    298 Pages
    by Routledge

    298 Pages
    by Routledge

    Histories of Egyptology are increasingly of interest: to Egyptologists, archaeologists, historians, and others. Yet, particularly as Egypt undergoes a contested process of political redefinition, how do we write these histories, and what (or who) are they for?  This volume addresses a variety of important themes, the historical involvement of Egyptology with the political sphere, the manner in which the discipline stakes out its professional territory, the ways in which practitioners represent Egyptological knowledge, and the relationship of this knowledge to the public sphere. Histories of Egyptology provides the basis to understand how Egyptologists constructed their discipline. Yet the volume also demonstrates how they construct ancient Egypt, and how that construction interacts with much wider concerns: of society, and of the making of the modern world.   

    1. Introduction: Thinking about Histories of Egyptology William Carruthers Part I: The Creation and Isolation of an Academic Discipline 2. The Object of Study: Egyptology, Archaeology, and Anthropology at Oxford, 1860–1960 Alice Stevenson 3. The Anglo-Saxon Branch of the Berlin School: The Interwar Correspondence of Adolf Erman and Alan Gardiner and the Loss of the German Concession at Amarna Thomas Gertzen 4. The Cursed Discipline? The Peculiarities of Egyptology at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Juan Carlos Moreno García 5. Interdisciplinary Measures: Beyond Disciplinary Histories of Egyptology David Gange Part II: Knowledge in the Making 6. Beyond Travelers’ Accounts and Reproductions: Unpublished Nineteenth-Century Works as Histories of Egyptology Andrew Bednarski 7. Studies in Esoteric Syntax: The Enigmatic Friendship of Aleister Crowley and Battiscombe Gunn Steve Vinson and Janet Gunn 8. Margaret Alice Murray and Archaeological Training in the Classroom: Preparing "Petrie’s Pups" Kathleen L. Sheppard 9. Discussing Knowledge in the Making Christina Riggs Part III: Colonial Mediations, Postcolonial Responses 10. On Archaeological Labor in Modern Egypt Wendy Doyon 11. Remembering and Forgetting Tutankhamun: Imperial and National Rhythms of Archaeology, 1922–1972 Donald M. Reid 12. The State of the Archive: Manipulating Memory in Modern Egypt and the Writing of Egyptological Histories Hussein Omar 13. Histories of Egyptology in Egypt: Some Thoughts Marwa Elshakry Part IV: Representing Knowledge 14. Thomas "Mummy" Pettigrew and the Study of Egypt in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain Gabriel Moshenska 15. Repeating Death: The High Priest Character in Mummy Horror Films Jasmine Day 16. What’s in a Face? Mummy Portrait Panels and Identity in Museum Display Debbie Challis 17. L

    Biography

    William Carruthers is a Max Weber postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. In 2014, he graduated with a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, and prior to that trained and worked as an archaeologist.

    "This book offers a wide range of opinions about the discipline of Egyptology and its formation, presenting new and refreshing ideas… the objective of the volume was to instigate a discussion on the Histories of Egyptology and this has been achieved, whilst leaving a great deal of scope for future Egyptologists." -Charlotte Booth, University of Birmingham

    "...it more than adequately brings the study of Egyptology well and truly into contemporary debates about historiography and the socio-politics of archaeology." - Tim Murray, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology