“In some versions of the Egyptian mythology, the sun god was born from a blue lotus that emerged from the primeval waters. The flower itself could be identified with the great goddess who gave birth to the sun. The blue lotus came to be a general symbol of rebirth. It was also the emblem of...
“By curious coincidence, the breakthrough that had allowed ancient Egyptian writing to be first deciphered, and had thus opened up the study of pharaonic civilization through its numerous inscriptions, had occurred exactly a century before. In 1822, the French scholar Jean-François Champollion published his famous Lettre à M. Dacier, in which he correctly described the...
“Iron from Tutankhamun’s Tomb analyzes iron artifacts from the tomb in depth for the first time. This group consists of small iron chisels set into wooden handles, an Eye of Horus amulet, a miniature headrest, and the blade of a richly decorated golden dagger. The most important of these were placed in close proximity to...
“Egypt was undoubtedly the best place to have been born a woman in the whole of the Ancient World…. Egyptian women enjoyed a legal, social, and sexual independence unrivaled by their Greek or Roman sisters, unrivaled, indeed by women in Europe until the late nineteenth century. They could own and trade in property, work outside...
“The Writing of the Gods: two rival geniuses in a race to decode the writing on one of the world’s most famous documents—the Rosetta Stone. It is one of the most famous objects in the world, attracting millions of visitors to the British museum ever year, and yet most people don’t really know what it...
“The five centuries that followed the unification of Egypt around 3100 BC–the first three dynasties–were crucial in the evolution of the Egyptian state. During this time all the key elements of the civilization that would endure for three millennia were put in place, centered on the semidivine king himself. The First Pharaohs: Their Lives and...
