Egyptologists’ Notebooks: The Golden Age of Nile Exploration in Words, Pictures, Plans, and Letters

With this comprehensive work, Naunton, a British Egyptologist, has created a highly readable, vividly illustrated survey of the various explorers, artists, archeologists and others who documented their fascination with ancient Egypt over the centuries. Crucially, Naunton covers the biggest names in Egyptology while also detailing the contributions of those often left out of this historic narrative. Thus, there are deft examinations of both famed British Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie and Amelia Edwards, the British writer who founded the Egyptian Exploration Fund that helped finance Petrie’s work. Naunton recounts the work of Howard Carter, the British Egyptologist who discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb, and explores the discoveries of Hassan Effendi Hosni, one of the first trained Egyptian Egyptologists. Working from diary entries, letters, sketches, hand-drawn maps, photographs all reproduced here in their original form) and a plethora of archival materials, this book provides a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at Egypt’s archeological history.

—DIANNA WRAY