Wonderful Things

Jason Thompson has written what is by far the best history of Egyptology yet. Filled with fascinating facts and characters, Thompson's book is comprehensive and eminently readable and certain to become the standard history of the field for many years to come. * Kent Weeks * Thompson's account demonstrates the multiple array of events, personalities, political developments and intellectual inclinations that contributed to shaping the field of Egyptology as it emerged as a self-conscious discipline. Moving beyond the familiar recounting of great discoveries in Egypt, . . . Wonderful Things seeks to demonstrate the power and complexities of Egyptological activities in fashioning the story of ancient Egypt. We learn much about the less acknowledged characters in the narratives of Egyptology, appreciating the different types of contributions individuals made beyond the practices of `digging and writing'. The new insights Thompson provides on those who simply `made things happen' is not only fascinating but serves as an extremely valuable contribution to the evaluation of Egyptology's legacy. This is an incisive anatomy of a discipline that challenges our all too familiar assumptions about how Egyptology came to be. -- Stephanie Moser Wonderful Things: A History of Egyptology: From Antiquity to 1881 is an excellent first installment on something the field has long been lacking--a comprehensive history of Egyptology. After surveying the Greeks and Romans, medieval writers, and the European scholars and travelers of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Jason Thompson hits full stride with the nineteenth-century. The French expedition and Champollion's decipherment gave birth to modern Egyptology, and this is the century in which Thompson-the author of definititve biographies of Egyptologists and Orientalists Gardiner Wilkinson and Edward William Lane-feels most fully at home. After the Description de l'Egypte and Champollion come Richard Lepsius, Heinrich Brugsch, Samuel Birch, and Auguste Mariette. All the great figures and landmarks are there, and many lesser ones as well. Both scholars and general readers will eagerly anticipate the second and third volumes to carry the story down to the present. -- Donald M. Reid This well-researched and authoritative account of the history of Egyptology will become the definitive reference tool for anyone interested in the development of this academic discipline. In this first volume of his study, the author has delved deep into the surviving archives to undercover the growth of Egyptology from antique times until the astonishing success of Mariette. Unlike previous works which only dealt with the highlights of Egyptian archaeology, he covers both the academic and archaeological aspects of the subject and shines a light on many unsung heroes of Egyptology who had been edged out of the limelight by the more well known. When completed, this study will form a lasting memorial to the men and women who in their various ways rescued the past of Egypt. -- Morris Bierbrier [Wonderful Things] is a remarkable achievement: a scholarly work packed with facts but one which is also genuinely readable. It is ambitious in its scope and detail. To follow the growth of an arcane but also a highly romantic branch of learning becomes in Thompson's book something close to an adventure. The author successfully convey his infectious enthusiasm for the subject but writes with a degree of detachment that allows him to be refreshingly and occasionally almost ruthlessly trenchant and critical. * from the Foreword by Jaromir Malek * At last a definitive history, which does justice not only to the major players but to lesser lights as well. Wonderful Things will be immensely valuable. -- Brian Fagan, author of The Rape of the Nile Remarkably thorough and yet refreshingly readable, this action-packed history of Egyptology is driven by some extraordinary characters-mostly men but some notable women-who needed to learn everything they could about the culture, land, and language of ancient Egypt. As much a study of European colonialism in Egypt as a historiography of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century scholarship, this volume [1] is an absolute necessity for anybody with an interest in pharaonic Egypt. -- Kara Cooney