Product Description

Theoretically astute yet engagingly written, and illustrated with many striking images, this book appeals to anyone with an interest in Akhenaten or in the archaeology of ancient Egypt.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81071 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'A beautifully written, scholarly, and engaging account.' - Choice

'I can thoroughly recommend the refreshingly idiosyncratic approach to the phenomenon of Amarna in Akhenaten. Dr Montserrat has clearly read both deeply and widely in areas which for many of us are very much at the periphery of our Egyptological interests.' - Egyptian Archaeology

From the Back Cover
The pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt in the mid-fourteenth century BCE, has been the subject of more speculation than any other character in Egyptian history. Often called the originator of monotheism and the world's first recorded individual, he has fascinated and inspired both scholars of Egyptology and creative talents as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Philip Glass.
This provocative biography examines both the real Akhenaten and the myths that have been created around him. It scrutinises the history of the pharaoh and his reign, which has been continually written in Eurocentric terms inapplicable to ancient Egypt, and the archaeology of Akhenaten's capital city, Amarna. It goes on to explore the pharaoh's extraordinary cultural afterlife, and the way he has been invoked to validate ideas as diverse as psychoanalysis, racial equality and fascism. Dr Montserrat makes the point that our view of Akhenaten has never been based purely on historical or archaeological knowledge, but is a cultural hallucination, influenced by western desires about ancient Egypt and modern struggles for legitimation and authority.
Combining up-to-date historical synthesis with extensive new archival research, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt is the first book to assess critically why the archaeology of ancient Egypt continues to fascinate. Theoretically astute and engagingly written, and illustrated with many striking images never previously published, it will appeal to anyone with an interest in Akhenaten or in the archaeology of ancient Egypt.

Customer Reviews

A different book on the notorious Pharaoh
This book has a very interesting and different slant on the topic of Akhenaten. It is not a biography or book on the king per se but how others see and use him to support their own agendas. Much of what he shows is worrying, especially his own intolerances that are made quite clear in the section on the king's sexuality. I do take issue with his comment that a quote in some gay encyclopedia is 'shoddy'. Whether you agree with the encyclopedia or not what it is quoting comes straight out of a work by Desroches-Noblecourt, an Egyptologist, in the 1970's - here she sets out the then belief that Egypt was a matriachal society and that the throne passed in the female line; that Akhenaten was grief stricken at Nefertiti's death and took Smenkhare as her 'replacement'. Of course archeological work since has disproved much of this but to condemn a group of people because they are quoting from an out of date book when he didn't do the same for the other groups he mentioned is hardly showing his objectivity.

However, beside that very small caveat, the book is a worthwhile read and gives a fascinating insight into the human need to make heroes.