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Women in the Valley of the Kings

The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.
In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries, and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.
Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      In a measured yet appreciative tone, Elizabeth Wiley narrates a fascinating, fact-filled celebration of the first women scholars, diarists, and collectors to help uncover the historic riches of ancient Egypt. Amelia Edwards, Marianne Brocklehurst, and Maggie Benson, who was the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, may not be household names, but their contributions were critical. Beginning in the 1880s, they cataloged and painstakingly copied 4,000-year-old murals and hieroglyphics before the artwork succumbed to humidity, light, and looting. Wiley is especially adept at pronouncing the many pharaoh and place names and delivers stories of the women battling scorching temperatures, tropical diseases, and a sluggish bureaucracy to buy shovels, rent camels, and hire crews to get a peek at civilization's distant past. B.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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