Egyptian Dreams

[Lutz]

Aidan Dodson : Amarna Sunrise - Egypt from Golden Age to Age of Heresy. - Cairo : American University Press, 2014. - ISBN : 978 977 416 633 4. - 288 pp., 122 b/w illus., 6 maps.

[Montuhotep88]

Already on my Amazon Wish List.


But does Dodson ever have time to sleep? He seems to have a book coming out every other day!

[Ikon]

He is certainly very skeptical of the DNA tests, and has ideas on the three inhabitants of KV35 side chamber Jc that some may raise an eyebrow at.

[Lutz]

Amazon Germany has given as estimated delivery date : July 16, 2014 - July 21, 2014...

Greetings, Lutz.
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Ägyptologie - Forum (German)

[Ankhetmaatre]

Very detailed, reads more like a paper than a popular history. Not surprising considering Dodson's egyptological pedigree. Mr Dodson painstakingly reviews the archeological, forensic and DNA evidence available to date on the first two thirds of the eighteenth dynasty. The appendices take almost half of the book and are a wealth of info. The notes and bibliography alone make it worth reading. Interestingly, he has the same reservations about the conclusions of the 20210 DNA findings that Jo Marchant does, and makes the astute observation that lineal first cousin intermarriage could create the same results.

What the book is not, is a fast page turner. It's so dense and thoroughly footnoted that only those who love the minutiae of ancient history are going to find any entertainment value in this book. That said, I'm sure it will be a good seller because of the focus and the credentials of the author.
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Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured
~Samuel Langhorne Clemens

[karnsculpture]

I received this book as a christmas gift, and although it includes a lot of useful information, images and in particular background on the wider royal courts from Amenhotep II to Akhenaten, some of the conclusions reached are hard for me to agree with.

1) Art styles and the co-regency - Dodson does not believe in a co-regency between Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV. Fine, however when discussing the development of art in both reigns he points out that some of Amenhotep IV's art initially harks back to a style used prior to Amenhotep III's first jubilee, before "catching up" with the years 30 - 38/9 style in the first 8 years of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten's reign. This seems like a contradiction and far from convincing the reader of his argument, has the opposite effect!

2) DNA - Dodson has to have a really convoluted theory to fit KV35YL being Nefertiti yet not being a King's Daughter. His theory is that Nefertiti is the daughter of Ay, who needs to be a brother of Tiye, and that Nefertiti's mother is an unknown sister of Amenhotep III. This, he says, means that KV35YL (Nefertiti) and KV55 (he thinks Akhenaten) are first cousins. This seems very shaky to me but at least avoids the problem of there being an unknown sister-wife of Akhenaten.

3) KV55 - Dodson believes this mummy is Akhenaten, and uses some of the same arguments as Lutz in pointing out the innacuracies in the aging of mummies. Unfortunately, and he points this out himself, that these studies actually support KV55 being younger than thought (around 1. Like the points he makes around the co-recency this makes his logic fail to stand up. Elsewhere Dodson seems to age down Akhenaten, pointing out depictions of him with Tiye in the first 2 regnal years, promoting the idea that the king will have still been in his 20s when he died (therefore is KV55).

Worthwhile book, and good to see actual photos of several monuments and inscriptions rather than the line drawings that often appear.

Paul

[Robson]

[kylejustin]

[Robson]

[evarelap]