Treasured, Christina Riggs
Treasured, Christina Riggs
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Treasured
How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century

Author: Christina Riggs

Narrator: Mary Jane Wells

Unabridged: 11 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 02/01/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A bold new history of the discovery of King Tut and the seismic impact it left on modern society. 

 When it was discovered in 1922, in an Egypt newly independent of the British Empire, the 3,300-year-old tomb of Tutankhamun sent shockwaves around the world. The boy-king became a household name overnight and kickstarted an international obsession that continues to this day. From pop culture and politics to tourism and the heritage industry, it’s impossible to imagine the past century without the discovery of Tutankhamun – yet so much of the story remains untold.
 
In Treasured, Christina Riggs weaves compelling historical analysis with tales of lives touched, or changed forever, by an encounter with the boy-king. Who remembers that Jacqueline Kennedy first welcomed the young pharaoh to America? That a Tutankhamun revival in the 1960s helped save the ancient temples of Egyptian Nubia? Or that the British Museum’s landmark Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972 remains its most successful ever? But not everything about ‘King Tut’ glitters: tours of his treasures in the 1970s were linked to Big Oil, his mummified remains have been exploited in the name of science, and accounts of his tomb’s discovery exclude Egyptian archaeologists.
 
Treasured offers a bold new history of the young pharaoh who has as much to tell us about our world as his own.
 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Debra on February 01, 2022

"Burying a king was busy work. So was finding him." 1922 British archaeologist, Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut) in 1922. The tomb contained between 5,000 to 6,000 objects/artifacts. This discovery not only shocked the world, but King Tut became (and rem......more

Goodreads review by Kara on March 05, 2022

To say that I windmill-slammed the request button on NetGalley for this book is an understatement. Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century promised something very tantalizing: a look into a cultural phenomenon that took the world by storm a hundred years ago. Christina Riggs does not exaggerate......more

Goodreads review by Leah on February 20, 2022

An extremely humane and thoughtful work, with an exceptionally fine balance between memoir and nonfiction.......more

Goodreads review by Lydia on November 13, 2022

There is something very poetic about reading this book exactly 100 years after the tomb of Tutankhamun was uncovered in the Giza desert. I remember reading a school library book about the tomb's 'discovery' when I was about 9 years-old and being absolutely entranced by the wealth of treasure that wa......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on December 13, 2021

I’m fascinated with Ancient Egypt and with the era of exploration that saw the birth of Egyptology. Howard Carter’s archeological exploits that culminated with the discovery of King Tut’s burial is also a favorite subject of mine. Treasured, however, focuses on the historical and political climate t......more


Quotes

“This is no dry tome, but a tale of personal obsessions -- her own, and that of many others, who were affected by this most sensational discovery.”—Paul Strathern, author of Empire: A History of the New World

“Searching, masterful and eloquent, Treasured plunges the reader into the mesmerizing story of Tutankhamun and the unending struggle for meaning, identity and money his rediscovery ignited a century ago. A deeply personal account that reveals how the scientific claims of Egyptology remain unable to match the mythological power of Tutmania, and how gazing on the boy king's golden face has shaped our perceptions of Egypt - and ourselves.”—James Delbourgo, author of Collecting the World

“At last, a serious treatment of one of the twentieth century's most important cultural icons. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Treasured is infinitely more accurate and fascinating than what's gone before."—David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything

“Christina Riggs brings a host of fresh perspectives to the story of Tutankhamun - a story you might feel you know, but really don't. A fabulous cultural history of the boy-king's discovery and the complex afterlife of that global event, weaving together colonial and Egyptian elements with the strange international role the pharaoh's body and treasures have taken on in the last 100 years. Elegant, compelling and illuminating.”—Professor Roger Luckhurst, author of The Mummy's Curse

“An imaginative weaving of the personal and political into a fresh narrative of an archaeological icon.”—Kirkus