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Lost Civilizations
六千零一夜: 关于古埃及的知识考古
☆编辑推荐：
关于埃及的故事，你听过多少？
也许你见过欧洲教堂中的马赛克镶嵌画，一美元纸币背面的全知之眼；也许你听过拿破仑命文艺界描绘的胜利凯旋，考古发掘后玄之又玄的诅咒；也许你知道威尔第歌剧中的埃塞俄比亚公主，还了解巴黎服装设计的埃及风尚，好莱坞电影中的艳后与毒蛇。
这本书不打算戳破你的埃及梦，但它想让你知道，西方文化中的“埃及”是如何一天天被建构成如今的样子。
☆媒体推荐：
里格斯向人们指出了一点：古埃及是我们想要它成为的样子。许多假设，归根结底也只是假设。那些对古埃及有着浪漫的憧憬，并“享受”其中的人（即大多数对此感兴趣的人），将迎来一次并非全然愉悦、但绝对充满惊奇的震撼之旅。对于众多“流行”埃及学的消费者、兴趣社团和大众读者来说，这本书堪称是一剂消除浮华的良药。这将是一次真正大开眼界的阅读体验，极力推荐。——《古埃及》杂志
从古埃及的考古遗迹，到罗马时代的惊险故事，直到今天象征式的艺术作品，里格斯带领读者开启了一场别开生面的知识探险，向人们展现了这个“失落的”文明对世界产生的影响，以及无数仍在催生蔓延的连锁反应。——《泰晤士报文学副刊》
这是一本深入浅出、信息丰富的“失落文明指南”。但它没有止步于对古埃及的历史研究，而是聚焦于一个优雅而有趣的主题——从古至今，文明对人类想象力的深刻影响。——密涅瓦大学
☆内容简介：
《六千零一夜》从知识考学角度，讲述了作为“知识”的古埃及，过去6000多年间在东西方语境中构建和演化的历程。从月亮神和亡灵书，到弗洛伊德书桌上的小雕像；从尼罗河和图坦卡蒙陵墓，到拉斯维加斯的金字塔形赌场；从神庙估计和英国“冒险家”，到歌手蕾哈娜的伊西斯女神文身；从史料中的克娄巴特拉和恺撒，到油画与好莱坞电影中的埃及艳后……作者剖析了那些关于埃及的异彩纷呈的故事背后，叙述者或主角的不同态度和目的，带领读者认识金字塔以外的古埃及。
知识考古学史当代西方思想的前沿话题之一，本书则是这些最新思想成果的集中呈现和运用。通过阅读这本书，读者不仅将重塑脑海的埃及印象，更能学会一种思考问题、理解世界的新方法。
关于埃及的故事，你听过多少？
也许你见过欧洲教堂中的马赛克镶嵌画，一美元纸币背面的全知之眼；也许你听过拿破仑命文艺界描绘的胜利凯旋，考古发掘后玄之又玄的诅咒；也许你知道威尔第歌剧中的埃塞俄比亚公主，还了解巴黎服装设计的埃及风尚，好莱坞电影中的艳后与毒蛇。
这本书不打算戳破你的埃及梦，但它想让你知道，西方文化中的“埃及”是如何一天天被建构成如今的样子。
☆媒体推荐：
里格斯向人们指出了一点：古埃及是我们想要它成为的样子。许多假设，归根结底也只是假设。那些对古埃及有着浪漫的憧憬，并“享受”其中的人（即大多数对此感兴趣的人），将迎来一次并非全然愉悦、但绝对充满惊奇的震撼之旅。对于众多“流行”埃及学的消费者、兴趣社团和大众读者来说，这本书堪称是一剂消除浮华的良药。这将是一次真正大开眼界的阅读体验，极力推荐。——《古埃及》杂志
从古埃及的考古遗迹，到罗马时代的惊险故事，直到今天象征式的艺术作品，里格斯带领读者开启了一场别开生面的知识探险，向人们展现了这个“失落的”文明对世界产生的影响，以及无数仍在催生蔓延的连锁反应。——《泰晤士报文学副刊》
这是一本深入浅出、信息丰富的“失落文明指南”。但它没有止步于对古埃及的历史研究，而是聚焦于一个优雅而有趣的主题——从古至今，文明对人类想象力的深刻影响。——密涅瓦大学
☆内容简介：
《六千零一夜》从知识考学角度，讲述了作为“知识”的古埃及，过去6000多年间在东西方语境中构建和演化的历程。从月亮神和亡灵书，到弗洛伊德书桌上的小雕像；从尼罗河和图坦卡蒙陵墓，到拉斯维加斯的金字塔形赌场；从神庙估计和英国“冒险家”，到歌手蕾哈娜的伊西斯女神文身；从史料中的克娄巴特拉和恺撒，到油画与好莱坞电影中的埃及艳后……作者剖析了那些关于埃及的异彩纷呈的故事背后，叙述者或主角的不同态度和目的，带领读者认识金字塔以外的古埃及。
知识考古学史当代西方思想的前沿话题之一，本书则是这些最新思想成果的集中呈现和运用。通过阅读这本书，读者不仅将重塑脑海的埃及印象，更能学会一种思考问题、理解世界的新方法。
- GenresHistoryEgyptNonfiction
355 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Christina Riggs
11 books54 followersChristina Riggs is Professor of the History of Visual Culture at Durham University in the northeast of England. Her most recent book is Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century (2021), an 'utterly original' account which Kirkus Reviews has described as 'an imaginative weaving of the personal and political into a fresh narrative of an archaeological icon.'
Riggs is a former museum curator who studied art history, archaeology, and Egyptology in her native United States before moving to the UK to complete her doctorate at Oxford University. She has held a number of prestigious fellowships, and her writing has appeared in Apollo, History Today, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and Italia magazine, the last reflecting her love of all things Italian. She lives between the north of England and the north of Italy – and wherever she is, she writes first thing in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee.
Riggs is a former museum curator who studied art history, archaeology, and Egyptology in her native United States before moving to the UK to complete her doctorate at Oxford University. She has held a number of prestigious fellowships, and her writing has appeared in Apollo, History Today, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, and Italia magazine, the last reflecting her love of all things Italian. She lives between the north of England and the north of Italy – and wherever she is, she writes first thing in the morning, with a strong cup of coffee.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 12, 2022
因為印度個一本lost civilization 系列而有動力去繼續看同系列的書
而本身是考古迷
對這的系列的題目都好有興趣
但我對這本感到有點兒失望
原本是想再認真認識埃及文明一些不為人知的小知識
但最後原來這本書比較是在説埃及考古史
以及埃及考古史和西方世界的關
並不是在説埃及史
唯一得到的考古小知識
就是原來埃及文字並不是只有我們平常在博物館見到的那款
還有其他日常使用的簡化版本
而本身是考古迷
對這的系列的題目都好有興趣
但我對這本感到有點兒失望
原本是想再認真認識埃及文明一些不為人知的小知識
但最後原來這本書比較是在説埃及考古史
以及埃及考古史和西方世界的關
並不是在説埃及史
唯一得到的考古小知識
就是原來埃及文字並不是只有我們平常在博物館見到的那款
還有其他日常使用的簡化版本
April 13, 2019
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs
by Stan Prager (4-13-19)
Apparently, Sigmund Freud spent the final year of his long and productive life as a refugee from the Nazi menace, in a house in London that is now a museum to his legacy. On the great exile’s preserved desk still sits a good number of statuettes from ancient cultures that he collected, including on one corner a carved stone baboon—known as the “Baboon of Thoth”—symbolic of that ancient Egyptian deity identified with both writing and wisdom. “Freud’s housekeeper recalled that he often stroked the smooth head of the stone baboon, like a favourite pet.” [p13] This anecdote serves as an introduction to Egypt, by Christina Riggs, a 2017 addition to the wonderful Lost Civilizations series that also features volumes devoted to the Etruscans, the Persians, and the Goths.
I was so taken by one of these—The Indus, by Andrew Robinson—that I put the others on a birthday list later fulfilled by my wonderful wife, so I now own the remainder of the set, each one destined to sit in queue in my ever-lengthening TBR until its time arrives. Egypt came up first. But it turns out that Riggs’ book stands apart from the others because it is not at all a history of Egyptian civilization, but rather a studied essay on the numerous ways that ancient Egypt came to be understood by subsequent cultures, its historical record manipulated and frequently distorted to support forced interpretations that suited its various interpreters. The toolkit deployed to construct sometimes elaborate visions that reflected far more kindly upon the later civilizations that succeeded it rather than accurately representing the ancient one that inspired these included its monumental architecture, its tomb painting, its mummified dead, its hieroglyphs, even abstract and unfounded notions of race and superiority—as well as, of course, objets d'art like the “Baboon of Thoth.”
Riggs, whose background is in art and archaeology, writes well and presents a series of articulate arguments to support her examination of all the ways Egypt has echoed down through the ages. It is often overlooked that to the first century Roman tourists who scribbled graffiti on tombs in the Nile valley, the pyramids of Giza were more ancient by half a millennium than those long-dead Romans are to us today! So, it is a very long echo indeed. Alas, for all of Rigg’s talent, I myself made a poor audience for her narrative. I opened the cover yearning to learn more about Egypt, not more about how we recall it. I might not have made the mistake had I noticed at the outset how her title—which is absent the definitive article—differed from the others in the series. There is The Indus, The Barbarians, The Etruscans. Riggs’ edition is simply Egypt. That should have been a clue! But that is, as we say on the street, “my bad,” not the author’s. Despite this, I did find enough to hold my interest, to finish the book, and to recommend it—but only to those with a far greater interest in art history and interpretation than I possess.
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs https://regarp.com/2019/04/13/review-...
by Stan Prager (4-13-19)
Apparently, Sigmund Freud spent the final year of his long and productive life as a refugee from the Nazi menace, in a house in London that is now a museum to his legacy. On the great exile’s preserved desk still sits a good number of statuettes from ancient cultures that he collected, including on one corner a carved stone baboon—known as the “Baboon of Thoth”—symbolic of that ancient Egyptian deity identified with both writing and wisdom. “Freud’s housekeeper recalled that he often stroked the smooth head of the stone baboon, like a favourite pet.” [p13] This anecdote serves as an introduction to Egypt, by Christina Riggs, a 2017 addition to the wonderful Lost Civilizations series that also features volumes devoted to the Etruscans, the Persians, and the Goths.
I was so taken by one of these—The Indus, by Andrew Robinson—that I put the others on a birthday list later fulfilled by my wonderful wife, so I now own the remainder of the set, each one destined to sit in queue in my ever-lengthening TBR until its time arrives. Egypt came up first. But it turns out that Riggs’ book stands apart from the others because it is not at all a history of Egyptian civilization, but rather a studied essay on the numerous ways that ancient Egypt came to be understood by subsequent cultures, its historical record manipulated and frequently distorted to support forced interpretations that suited its various interpreters. The toolkit deployed to construct sometimes elaborate visions that reflected far more kindly upon the later civilizations that succeeded it rather than accurately representing the ancient one that inspired these included its monumental architecture, its tomb painting, its mummified dead, its hieroglyphs, even abstract and unfounded notions of race and superiority—as well as, of course, objets d'art like the “Baboon of Thoth.”
Riggs, whose background is in art and archaeology, writes well and presents a series of articulate arguments to support her examination of all the ways Egypt has echoed down through the ages. It is often overlooked that to the first century Roman tourists who scribbled graffiti on tombs in the Nile valley, the pyramids of Giza were more ancient by half a millennium than those long-dead Romans are to us today! So, it is a very long echo indeed. Alas, for all of Rigg’s talent, I myself made a poor audience for her narrative. I opened the cover yearning to learn more about Egypt, not more about how we recall it. I might not have made the mistake had I noticed at the outset how her title—which is absent the definitive article—differed from the others in the series. There is The Indus, The Barbarians, The Etruscans. Riggs’ edition is simply Egypt. That should have been a clue! But that is, as we say on the street, “my bad,” not the author’s. Despite this, I did find enough to hold my interest, to finish the book, and to recommend it—but only to those with a far greater interest in art history and interpretation than I possess.
Review of Egypt: Lost Civilizations, by Christina Riggs https://regarp.com/2019/04/13/review-...
May 8, 2019
I have been wanting to read several books in this series, but when I saw this one one sale, I decided why not. Egypt doesn't seem particularly lost, so I was curious how this book would frame its history. Be warned, this is not an introduction to ancient Egypt per se. Rather, it is an introduction to the historiography of ancient Egypt, i.e. to the way that the history of Egypt has been written. That said, this is a fascinating book. Riggs introduces many of the "greatest hits" of Egyptian history, including hieroglyphs and the Rosetta stone, King Tut and Egyptomania, Cleopatra, and other essential topics. She also explores how Egypt has been "lost" in favor of the fantasies of Egypt that various ages have grafted on to it since the Enlightenment. The chapters on scientific racism are particularly compelling, and I think I might end up incorporating them into my teaching.
As I said, if you just want to learn about Egypt as an "objective" history, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you have any interest in Egypt at all, you will learn a lot from this book. Most importantly, you will learn how subjective this history of Egypt has always been, dating all the way back to the Ptolemies, Macedonian conquerors who commissioned the Egyptian priest Manetho to write a history of his country. As a result, he came up with the system of numbered dynasties that we still use to this day. The division of Egypt into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms was a much later invention.
The book itself is impressively produced, with thick glossy pages (sometimes shiny in the wrong light!) and full color photographs throughout. It reads a bit like one of those handy Oxford Very Short Introductions, but the inclusion of pictures really helps bring to life the points she makes. In fact, much of this book is focused on artistry and imagery. Each chapter includes sporadic endnotes to offer options for further reading.
As I said, if you just want to learn about Egypt as an "objective" history, you may want to look elsewhere, but if you have any interest in Egypt at all, you will learn a lot from this book. Most importantly, you will learn how subjective this history of Egypt has always been, dating all the way back to the Ptolemies, Macedonian conquerors who commissioned the Egyptian priest Manetho to write a history of his country. As a result, he came up with the system of numbered dynasties that we still use to this day. The division of Egypt into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms was a much later invention.
The book itself is impressively produced, with thick glossy pages (sometimes shiny in the wrong light!) and full color photographs throughout. It reads a bit like one of those handy Oxford Very Short Introductions, but the inclusion of pictures really helps bring to life the points she makes. In fact, much of this book is focused on artistry and imagery. Each chapter includes sporadic endnotes to offer options for further reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews