Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century - Christina Riggs Audiobook

Written by Christina Riggs
Read by Mary Jane Wells
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release date: February 1, 2022
Duration: 11:14:59

When it was discovered in 1922, in an Egypt newly independent of the British Empire, the 3,300-year-old tomb of Tutankhamun sent shock waves around the world. The boy-king became a household name overnight and kick started 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.

Library Journal
“In advance of the centennial of the November 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, Riggs (history of visual culture, Durham Univ., UK) explores how this event dramatically impacted post-colonial Egypt’s foreign diplomacy and domestic politics, as well as global popular culture. It’s a natural follow-up to her previous book, Photographing Tutankhamun, which tells the story of Harry Burton’s work as official photographer for the excavation, clearance, and conservation of the tomb and its contents. Now, she is the first to finally acknowledge the importance of the native Egyptians who were essential participants in that unprecedented endeavor. Highlighted are the periodic traveling exhibitions of the gold mask and other treasures which were the inspiration of the great French Egyptologist Christiane Desroches Noblecourt and UNESCO, intended originally to raise funds to save the ancient monuments of Nubia from the Aswan High Dam’s flood waters and subsequently for the refurbishing of Egypt’s museums. VERDICT Riggs provides an unparalleled behind-the-curtain view of the challenges and complications involved in mounting a major international traveling museum exhibition. The inclusion of her personal museum and archaeological experiences and her desire to reveal the previously overlooked contributions of women and Egyptians make this a fascinating and moving narrative.”

I was one of the fortunate to see the exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum on it’s first tour of the US.