EGYPTIAN
concludes the chapter. After comparing its layout to the programmatic texts of the boundary stelae at the beginning of Chapter 4, Dodson devotes some pages to the ‘Hymn to the Aten’ (perhaps a bit long, as it differs little from Murnane’s in his Texts of the Amarna Period in Egypt, 1995). He then turns to foreign relations; the chapter concludes with the great durbar of Year 12 where Sunset began. In the f ifth and f inal chapter, Dodson reiterates his take on the last years of Akhenaten and the succession as argued in Sunset. There has been no response in print to date (apart from the objections I expressed in EA 37) to Dodson’s proposal that Nefertiti was first the coregent of her spouse and then, after he died, of (their son) Tutankhaten with his nearly decade-long reign counted from Akhenaten’s death. Of course, Nefertiti’s survival of her husband is crucial for his thesis. He mentions the recently discovered graffito that names the queen in her husband’s 16th regnal year (Athena Van der Perre, Journal of Egyptian History 7). Both she and Dodson seem unaware that analysis of labels on wine amphorae from Amarna (published in 1997) had already made it highly likely that she was alive in Akhenaten’s final 17th regnal year. Regardless, neither graffito nor labels furnish support for the theory that Nefertiti was coregent with either her husband or her putative son – only that she was alive towards the end of Akhenaten’s reign. Dodson says little about most monuments he lists and illustrates. While illustrations are numerous, their often small scale and
ARCHAEOLOGY
rendering in monochrome tend to make them less attractive than they could be and sometimes hard to decipher – a problem that confronts all of us when marketing strategies mandate a smaller format than we might consider ideal. In such circumstances, illustrating and elucidating relevant details is in the best interest of readers. The chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty presented in the first of four appendices differs somewhat from Sunset (e.g., Amenhotep III is now allotted a 40-year reign). The second appendix correlating Near Eastern rulers with Egypt’s pharaohs is expanded to accommodate the reigns of Amenhotep II and Thutmose IV as well as Mitannian rulers omitted from Sunset. The complete titularies of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV, and Amenhotep III are added to the list in appendix 3 while those of Tutankhaten/ Tutankhamun, Ay, and Horemheb are omitted. The transcription of all variants but with neither suggested translations nor discussion in the text raises a question that occurred to me repeatedly when reading this book: for whom is it intended? Lay readers, even those well-versed and very interested in the Amarna Period, and all but advanced graduate students will not benefit from this appendix nor from many of the references in the endnotes. These are of the author + date type, as in Sunset, obliging the reader who encounters a note in the text to go from the endnotes to the bibliography. Often enough the search does not end there, especially when the reference for a monument or site is to one of the volumes of the Topographical Bibliography,
the specialist’s standard reference work. The fourth and f inal appendix tackles the genealogy of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the problems created – not solved – by the publication in 2010 of analyses of data obtained from CT scanning and DNA sampling by the team headed by Zahi Hawass. Dodson’s system of differentiating likenamed individuals by adding a letter or number is not ‘a basic system that has been developing in Egyptology since the 1970s’, except among specialists dealing with Third Intermediate Period personalities. It has certainly not caught on for the New Kingdom. Anyone interested in the Amarna Period and its aftermath quickly becomes well acquainted with the dilemma of keeping up-to-date: new theories (less frequently, new data) are published continuously. Dodson’s impressive bibliography of over 30 pages lists many titles that were new to this reviewer. Among those that are conspicuous by their absence is Susanne Bickel’s publication (1997) of the blocks from Amenhotep III’s funerary temple reused in the construction of Merenptah’s (fig. 101 which is also reproduced, in colour, on the dust jacket). Also not cited is Herman Schlögl’s comparatively modest Nofretete – Die Wahrheit über die schöne Königin (2012), which may have appeared after Dodson submitted his manuscript; not so, however, Dimitri Laboury’s extensive study Akhénaton (2010). Both authors present a rather different picture of the ‘heretic’s’ reign than Dodson. MARIANNE EATON-KRAUSS
Authorized bookseller for the Egypt Exploration Society
New and antiquarian books on Egyptology and Ancient History Stockist for Egyptian Archaeology, KMT, and Minerva
Rare books are our speciality Excellent eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com.au/Ankh-Antiquarian-Books Ankh Books Antiquarian (open by appointment only) P.O.Box 133, Darling,Vic, 3145, Australia P: 61 398881990
47
M: 0149395782
E: jennifer@ankhantiquarianbooks.com.au