A Short History of Tomb-Raiding: The Epic Hunt for Egypt's Treasures

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To secure a comfortable afterlife, ancient Egyptians built fortress-like tombs and filled them with precious goods, a practice that generated staggering quantities of artefacts over the course of many millennia, but one which has also drawn thieves and tomb-raiders to Egypt since antiquity. Drawing on modern scholarship, reportage and period sources, this book tracks the history of treasure-seekers in Egypt and the social contexts in which they operated, revealing striking continuities throughout time. Readers will recognize the foibles of today's politicians and con artists, the perils of materialism, and the cycles of public compliance and dissent in the face of injustice. In describing an age-old pursuit and its timeless motivations, A Short History of Tomb-Raiding shows how much we have in common with our Bronze Age ancestors.

'Golia skillfully combines secret passages, blind alleys, priest, plunderers, magicians, and mummies to explore the venerable tradition of tomb raiding in Egypt. Vividly written and filled with unusual illustrations, this book is a must for anyone interested in Egypt, the secret books of treasure hunters, and the antiquities trade.' Salima Ikram, Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology, American University in Cairo, author of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction

'In a wide-ranging and eloquent account of tomb robbery in Egypt across the millennia we are presented with a parade of pharaohs, priests, embalmers, builders of pyramids, death-dealing robots, tomb robbers, sorcerers, jinn, geomancers, confidence tricksters, rubes, and archaeologists. Golia has written an exhilarating masterpiece of social and intellectual history.' Robert Irwin, author and Arabist

'The history of tomb-raiding ranges across the boundaries between fact and fantasy, archaeology and magic, scholarship and crime. It extends from Greek and Roman treasure hunters to Arab sorcerers, necropolis-dwelling clans to European adventurers, and forms a continuous narrative that connects the age of the pharaohs to the academic experts and museum collections of today. Golia is a deeply informed chronicler of Egypt ancient and modern, and this is a panoramic and gloriously illustrated survey of its fabled secrets, treasures, and wonders.' Mike Jay, author and cultural historian

'This book is a must-read. Golia creatively and accurately connects the ancient with the modern to narrate an engaging history of Egypt through the greed of pilferers and treasure hunters, the collusion of rulers and the swell of popular revolts.' Alaa Al Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building

Reviews

"A Short History of Tomb-Raiding tackles a broad sweep of Egypt's history. . . . Engagingly written. . . . The exploitation of ancient burials has a long history--not a short one, and it seems we are still living it."-- "Apollo"
"The beauty of this book is that it is Egypt from the other side: it is tomb-raiding as a social and cultural phenomenon, leaving a deep impact on those living there. A Short History of Tomb-Raiding is, therefore, also a short history of Egyptians. It is a much better-rounded narrative than those books, focused solely on treasure, that have gone before. . . . A grown-up, holistic account of tomb-raiding, with a relevance and immediacy that is as unusual as finding that fabled cache of gold."-- "Get History"
"Whatever Maria Golia writes about, she's really writing about wonder... Now, in A Short History of Tomb-Raiding, she has created a treasure house that teems with wonderful stories, both extraordinary and plaintive, of banditos, bathos, feats of daring."-- "4Columns"

Author Bio

Long-time resident of Cairo, Maria Golia is author of several critically acclaimed books dealing with Egypt's present moment and past history. Her recent biography, Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure (Reaktion, 2020), will appear in paperback in 2022.