Tutankhamen by Christine El Mahdy

I'm a huge fan of trawling second-hand bookstores, and it's not exactly an open secret that I'm currently researching old King Tut because Reasons. What I absolutely love is when I reach out for a book, see the gilt lettering on the spine, open it, and realise that this volume, despite the lack of dust cover, will be absolutely *perfect*. Such was the case with Tutankhamen by Christine El Mahdy.

I'm also an adept at Google-fu, so I was rather saddened to learn that El Mahdy passed away a good few years ago, and doesn't have much of a footprint. Which is a pity, because she makes some compelling arguments in her book that differ from the generally accepted conventions related to the Amarna Period and its direct aftermath.

Primarily, she posits that the Heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten was perhaps not so hellbent on destroying Egypt's pantheist religions in a vicious pogrom, and just that he was very much concerned with 'doing his own thing' so to speak, and the focus on Akhetaten weakened the grip of the other temples. It's an interesting thought. She also touches on the work of Howard Carter, his errors and triumphs, and also takes a stab at untangling the hot mess of lineages in the royal house.

Of course, and this is the case to this day, much of what the archaeologists suggest are theories – we simply don't have enough facts – and it's all but impossible to deal with overwhelming certainties when it comes to establishing what really happened to Tut – did he die of natural causes or did an ambitious Aye have him popped. 

Whatever the truth of the matter, El Mahdy offers us a well-considered, fascinating deep dive into this period, and I'm most certainly going to keep my eye open for the handful of other books she brought out. What a pity that she died so young.