Archaeology Magazine - April 1970 - 99

Edwards Professorof Egyptologyin
the Universityof London,has excellent credentials. He has been responsible for some of the most imaginativeand significantexcavations
in Egypt and Nubia during the past
four decades. His intimate knowledge of the land and archaeological
remains of Nubia makes for an interesting account of the recent Nubian salvage campaign. Combining
the analysis of the excavated materials with the testimony of the surviving Egyptian texts, Emery succeeds in drawing a fascinating
portrait of this land and the peoples
who inhabited and conquered it.
The text is accompanied by good
photographs, fine drawings and diagrams, maps and a useful bibliography.
Inevitably there are some points
upon which some scholars may not
agree, but these are comparatively
few in number. One may, for example, experience some doubt as to
whether the evidence will support
the conclusion that the Egyptians
colonized Nubia during the Old
Kingdom.Likewise,it is difficult to
understand why, in the light of the
texts, Professor Emery continues to
consider the Sixth Dynasty official
Herkhuf to be an explorer. Nevertheless, the book is interesting and
authoritative.It is recommendedfor
non-specialistand specialistalike.
Leonard Cottrell's book represents a wholly different approach to
the presentationof the fruits of archaeologicaland historical investigation to a non-specialistaudience.
Taking as his primary focus the
lives, character and influenceof five
Egyptian queens- Hatshepsut, Tiy,
Nefertiti, Ankhesenamenand Nefertari- he seeks to provide the average reader with as much insight
into the lives of ancient Egyptian
women as the scanty evidence permits. He draws extensivelyon the
work of well-known scholars, but
not always with discretion. He has
done a lot of preparation and there
is much in the book that is both interesting and reliable. Cottrell has
not, however,managed to achieve a
balance between the needs of the
untutored reader and the problems
of speculation. His prose can be
gooey and over-simple. His pronouncementsare, on occasion,quite
remarkable, as when he offers his
personal view that the famous
painted bust of Nefertiti "is per-

dig: a new frontier
for the archaeologist.

jr
Peter Throckmorton one of a
new breed of "scuba scientists"
ril
exploring the ruins of long-sunk
|
vessels for the artifacts of
lhHiWITPPHC
ancient civilization. His fasciLsllll#
ff I Cvlld
nating account of this new
i
i AND i
scientific frontier - its history,
'
A A I AITI7
techniques, dangers, and drama i'l
Y
vIlClvUlUH
- and of his own underwater
Ti if i
> i
IHC UMKirVCSlCu OC3
adventures in the Indian Ocean
and in the Mediterranean will
fcy peter Throckmorton
dehght ayman and scientist
/uthor of The Lost Shi
alike. Illustrated with photographs, maps and diagrams.
$6.95 at bookstores.
Atlantic-Little,

Brown

haps one of the few convincingarguments for the existence of God"
(page 98). It is quite proper, on the
one hand, to offer the reader some
reactions to that sculptor's marvel,
but it is, on the other hand, antiintellectual buffoonery to justify it
by equating the scholarly work on
Nefertiti and her era with the attempts of future archaeologists to
discover what kind of hat Lord
Avon wore or what Mr. Harold
Wilson's favoritepipe tobaccomight
have been (page 99). One does not
have to be a stuffy academicto find
this kind of thing objectionable.
The illustrations are generally
good. There is á brief bibliography
of mixed value to the non-specialist
reader who normally has no immediate access to scholarly journals
or use for such items as Gardiner's
Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. There are footnotes at the
end of each chapter, but they are
virtually useless without the page
numbers for the volumescited.
Emery demonstrates that interest
and sound presentation are not irreconcilable.
Gerald E. Kadish
State Universityof New York
at Binghamton

OF
ANCIENT
GLASSIN THEMUSEUM
FINEARTS,BOSTON,
by AXELVON
Saldern. 94 pages, 70 plates, including 3 in color, frontispiece in
color. New York Graphic Society,
Greenwich,Connecticut1968 $8.50
It is an often repeated assumption that Americanmuseums do not
publish catalogues of their collections. No doubt this was once so,
and perhaps inordinate professional
attention was given to developing
the social role of museums, pursuing relentlessly objects from all
periods and origins for the enrichment of their collections,with a consequent apparent neglect of scholarship. Yet, it still remains to be
proven that such attitudes were
misguided and it is a moot point
whether developinga following,incorporating museums within the
fabric of society, and assembling
collectionswhich are in many cases
unrivaled anywhere will, in the last
analysis,have been a liability.
Times, however, are changing
and now that collectionsand visitor
attendance have attained such impressive stature, more and more
attention is being given to studying
in depth that which has been so
179

Archaeology Magazine - April 1970

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - April 1970