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A History of Ancient Egypt #3
A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 3: From the Shepherd Kings to the End of the Theban Monarchy
The final chapter in the definitive, three-volume history of the world's first known state
Archaeologist John Romer has spent a lifetime chronicling the history of Ancient Egypt, and here he tells the epic story of an era dominated by titans of the popular the radical iconoclast Akhenaten, the boy-king Tutankhamun and the all-conquering Ramesses II. But 'heroes' do not forge history by themselves. This was also a time of international trade, cultural exchange and sophisticated art, even in the face of violent change.
Alongside his visionary new history of this, the most famous period in the long history of Ancient Egypt, Romer turns a critical eye on Egyptology itself. Paying close attention to the evidence, he corrects prevailing narratives which cast the New Kingdom as an imperial state power in the European mould. Instead, he reveals - through broken artefacts in ruined workshops, or preserved letters between a tomb-builder and his son - a culture more beautiful and beguiling than we could have imagined.
Romer carefully reconstructs the real story of the New Kingdom as evidenced in the archaeological record, and the result - the final volume of a life-long project - secures his status as Ancient Egypt's finest chronicler.
Archaeologist John Romer has spent a lifetime chronicling the history of Ancient Egypt, and here he tells the epic story of an era dominated by titans of the popular the radical iconoclast Akhenaten, the boy-king Tutankhamun and the all-conquering Ramesses II. But 'heroes' do not forge history by themselves. This was also a time of international trade, cultural exchange and sophisticated art, even in the face of violent change.
Alongside his visionary new history of this, the most famous period in the long history of Ancient Egypt, Romer turns a critical eye on Egyptology itself. Paying close attention to the evidence, he corrects prevailing narratives which cast the New Kingdom as an imperial state power in the European mould. Instead, he reveals - through broken artefacts in ruined workshops, or preserved letters between a tomb-builder and his son - a culture more beautiful and beguiling than we could have imagined.
Romer carefully reconstructs the real story of the New Kingdom as evidenced in the archaeological record, and the result - the final volume of a life-long project - secures his status as Ancient Egypt's finest chronicler.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published May 25, 2023
20 people are currently reading
229 people want to read
About the author
John Romer
25 books67 followersJohn Louis Romer attended Ottershaw School, the Wimbledon School of Art (1958-1963), and the Royal College of Art (A.R.C.A., 1966) in London. Following this, he traveled and studied in the Near East and married his wife Yvonne Elizabeth de Coetlogan Aylwin (Beth), an artist and writer. After a brief stint teaching the history of art and architecture at art colleges in England and Wales (1968-1972), he worked as an epigraphic artist with the British Institute in Iran at Persepolis and Pasargadae in 1972. He worked as an artist in epigraphic studies — with the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, 1972-1973, and with the Oriental Institute Epigraphic Survey, 1973-1977 — in the temples and tombs of Thebes. In 1977-1979, he became the Field Director of The Brooklyn Museum’s Theban Expedition, originating and organizing an excavation of the tomb of Ramesses XI in the Valley of the Kings. In 1992, at the request of the Egyptian Organization of Antiquities, he convened a multinational committee to advise and recommend projects and procedures for the conservation of the Valley of the Kings. He is a member of the International Association of Egyptologists and the Egypt Exploration Society. He has been the President of the Theban Foundation since 1979. He has written several acclaimed books and produced some excellent documentaries. His primary interests are in the preservation of antiquities, and in making the past meaningful to present-day people. When he is not busy writing books, making documentaries, or pushing for conservation in the Valley of the Kings, he and his wife live in Aiola, Tuscany, Italy.
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September 10, 2025I read this third and last part of John Romer's trilogy principally to get a better idea of four thorny topics in Egyptology when it comes to the Second Intermediate Period (ca 1700-ca 1550 BCE) and the New Kingdom (period 1550-1050 BCE): the question of who the Hyksos really were, the controversial reputation of Queen Hatsepsut, the even more controversial reputation of the "heretical" pharaoh Akhenaten, and the estimate of who the infamous Sea Peoples were. These are four topics on which Egyptologists still cannot agree.
On all these subjects John Romer writes extensively how misrepresentations (such as the 19th century view that the Hyksos corresponded to the Hebrews) continued to dominate the mainstream view for a long time, and how divergent the current views still are, for example on Akhenaten. All fascinating stuff, but I must say this is not so new: many of those debates took place decades ago. As in the previous volumes, Romer constantly emphasizes how limited the source material actually is - even if this is more abundant for the New Kingdom than before - and he lashes out at colleagues who nevertheless venture into far-reaching speculation. As far as I'm concerned rightly so.
But it does mean that this volume offers no revolutionary new insights and as a consequence certainly no new synthesis. And in some chapters, like that on Akhenaten, Romer remains rather aloof. For example, he suggests that a severe plague epidemic may have led to a (temporary) new vision of life and death, an explanation that seems very unsatisfactory to me.
I'm not going to compromise on Romer's expertise, there's no doubt about that. But the very revisionist slant of this third part disappointed me somewhat. Also, I guess the author (now in his eighties) is not going to venture into the later Egyptian history (after 1000 BCE), and that's a pity. For many Egyptologists this is a lesser period, with more "dark ages" and much lesser works of arts. As far as I now know, this estimation is wrong: it was an age (especially after 600 BCE) Egypt interacted much more with the areas that surrounded it (Nubia to the south, Assyria-Babylon-Persia to the north-east, not forgetting the Phoenicians and the Hebrews and the Hellenic region to its northwest). It's less spectacular in artistic output (however...), but it's so much more interesting in terms of interconnections and multipolarity.
On all these subjects John Romer writes extensively how misrepresentations (such as the 19th century view that the Hyksos corresponded to the Hebrews) continued to dominate the mainstream view for a long time, and how divergent the current views still are, for example on Akhenaten. All fascinating stuff, but I must say this is not so new: many of those debates took place decades ago. As in the previous volumes, Romer constantly emphasizes how limited the source material actually is - even if this is more abundant for the New Kingdom than before - and he lashes out at colleagues who nevertheless venture into far-reaching speculation. As far as I'm concerned rightly so.
But it does mean that this volume offers no revolutionary new insights and as a consequence certainly no new synthesis. And in some chapters, like that on Akhenaten, Romer remains rather aloof. For example, he suggests that a severe plague epidemic may have led to a (temporary) new vision of life and death, an explanation that seems very unsatisfactory to me.
I'm not going to compromise on Romer's expertise, there's no doubt about that. But the very revisionist slant of this third part disappointed me somewhat. Also, I guess the author (now in his eighties) is not going to venture into the later Egyptian history (after 1000 BCE), and that's a pity. For many Egyptologists this is a lesser period, with more "dark ages" and much lesser works of arts. As far as I now know, this estimation is wrong: it was an age (especially after 600 BCE) Egypt interacted much more with the areas that surrounded it (Nubia to the south, Assyria-Babylon-Persia to the north-east, not forgetting the Phoenicians and the Hebrews and the Hellenic region to its northwest). It's less spectacular in artistic output (however...), but it's so much more interesting in terms of interconnections and multipolarity.
August 14, 2023
In this third and last part of his History of Ancient Egypt, John Romer again focuses on correcting the traditional image of the Nile Valley civilization, an image that was mainly shaped by the early Egyptologists of the 19th century, and that imposed modern notions of kingship, empire, and civilization itself upon a period of more than 3.000 years ago. Apparently this distorted view still predominates, even in academic circles: “the overarching narratives of the present academic industry, the quasi-academic consensus that deciphers and explains the relics of pharaonic culture for students and the general public alike, is still firmly stuck inside the ‘ancient Egypt’ of the nineteenth-century West.” The slant of this book therefore is principally revisionist. For example, Romer dwells for a long time on the 19th century identification of the Hyksos as the biblical people of the Hebrews. But this interpretation has been swept off the table already decades ago. Nothing new then, and that applies to quite a few other debates that Romer focuses on. So for those who expect a new synthesis, this will be a disappointment.
This third part is also a bit disappointing in terms of form. The chapters are not all logically arranged: Romer is not giving a systematic exposition but sometimes limits himself to selected topics. And occasionally intriguing phrases pop up that are not further explained (such as evidence of brutality supposedly revealed by tombs found in Amarna, the capital of the 'heretical' Pharaoh Akhenaten). But all that does not prevent this part from being chock full of interesting information. And, of course, the expertise of John Romer (now in his eighties) is beyond doubt.
More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
This third part is also a bit disappointing in terms of form. The chapters are not all logically arranged: Romer is not giving a systematic exposition but sometimes limits himself to selected topics. And occasionally intriguing phrases pop up that are not further explained (such as evidence of brutality supposedly revealed by tombs found in Amarna, the capital of the 'heretical' Pharaoh Akhenaten). But all that does not prevent this part from being chock full of interesting information. And, of course, the expertise of John Romer (now in his eighties) is beyond doubt.
More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
February 9, 2024
Reads more like a treaty than a popular history book. It’s in constant dialogue with the mainstream narrative regarding Ancient Egypt’s history, which is why it’s not a good starting point for those without any previous knowledge of pharaonic history.
Romer’s approach is advertised as fact-based. His ambition is to strip the guesswork that (in his opinion) makes up most of Ancient Egypt’s history from the bare facts. So he pits the narrative built within the last 2 centuries of egyptology against hard evidence - mainly archeological data - and looks at what is left. And what is left is shockingly little.
His main thesis is that we actually know much less than we thought we did about this very old civilization where literacy was not widespread at all and writing was used mainly for propaganda, rather than for recording objective historical facts. Archeological evidence, which is left as the most reliable source of information given the circumstances, is scarce and doesn’t warrant the elaborate narratives that have been weaved since the deciphering of hieroglyphic writing in the first half of the 19th century.
Most of the history we think we know is guesswork, based upon data/artefacts that were interpreted through the filter of 19th century concepts such as race, nation or ethnicity. These notions were projected by early egyptologists upon a civilization to which they were entirely alien, leading to a history told in terms of modern notions such as foreign invaders, wars of conquest between nations or ethnic purges.
The book begins where the previous volume left off, with the Hyksos “invasion” and expulsion, leading to the establishment of the New Kingdom, and ends, roughly, with another invasion, that of the Sea People, leading to the Bronze Age collapse. On both these famous episodes Romer has a very fresh, sceptical take.
There is no evidence that the Hyksos, described by Manetho as Asian invaders that “behaved themselves most cruelly” were actually an ethnic group that invaded the Nile Delta in the 16th century BC. Evidence points to a prosperous, multi-ethnic community at Avaris, formed over the centuries, that was well integrated into Egyptian society at the time. Their expulsion was an effect of ambitious Theban rulers who saw the Avaris-based rulers of Lower Egypt as foreigners.
Similarly, the famous and mysterious “Sea People” which were supposed to have come in waves from the general direction of the Mediterranean and trigger the end of the Bronze Age were probably no more than tribes that had lived at the borders of the Egyptian state for centuries and got involved periodically in skirmishes with the Egyptians. It was certainly not a sudden invasion, seeing how they appear in the records over a period of more than a century (two of the “Sea People” tribes are mentioned as having taking part on opposite sides at the battle of Kadesh, in the time of Ramesses II, about a century before the so-called invasion).
Moreover, Egyptian sources are the only ones mentioning Sea People (they are mainly featured on Ramesses III’s temple at Medinet Habu). It is true that, around that time, many cities in the Middle East and Anatolia seem to have disappeared. But that could have been because of a number of causes and casting the Sea People as a large scale migration force which caused the destabilization and eventual collapse of all the Bronze Age cultures is not supported by archeological evidence. Or so Romer argues.
I tended to be skeptical about his approach at first. Especially towards his obsessive tendency to ascribe interpretations of evidence to modern notions held by historians, that allegedly the ancient egyptians were strangers to. Why would those historians not assume that the ancient egyptians were aware of race, ethnicity, nation etc. when the walls of their monuments were full of scenes of smiting foreigners, wars of conquest or had stereotypical depictions of nubians, levantines or lybians to set them apart from the egyptians themselves?
But Romer is in his eighties now and he’s been an active egyptologist for most of his life, whereas I’m just getting into it. So I’m probably not very qualified to critically assess his work.
Finally, his approach sometimes makes for very dry reading. Romer spends pages upon pages describing ruins of temples or cities, as revealed by archeological work (for instance at Amarna or Medinet Habu) and then proceeds to compare the actual evidence with what’s in the history books, concluding almost every issue at hand with “we can’t actually know what happened there”. It’s not a satisfying read if you want a story-shaped history, but it’s a refreshing, grounded and very necessary point of view.
Romer’s approach is advertised as fact-based. His ambition is to strip the guesswork that (in his opinion) makes up most of Ancient Egypt’s history from the bare facts. So he pits the narrative built within the last 2 centuries of egyptology against hard evidence - mainly archeological data - and looks at what is left. And what is left is shockingly little.
His main thesis is that we actually know much less than we thought we did about this very old civilization where literacy was not widespread at all and writing was used mainly for propaganda, rather than for recording objective historical facts. Archeological evidence, which is left as the most reliable source of information given the circumstances, is scarce and doesn’t warrant the elaborate narratives that have been weaved since the deciphering of hieroglyphic writing in the first half of the 19th century.
Most of the history we think we know is guesswork, based upon data/artefacts that were interpreted through the filter of 19th century concepts such as race, nation or ethnicity. These notions were projected by early egyptologists upon a civilization to which they were entirely alien, leading to a history told in terms of modern notions such as foreign invaders, wars of conquest between nations or ethnic purges.
The book begins where the previous volume left off, with the Hyksos “invasion” and expulsion, leading to the establishment of the New Kingdom, and ends, roughly, with another invasion, that of the Sea People, leading to the Bronze Age collapse. On both these famous episodes Romer has a very fresh, sceptical take.
There is no evidence that the Hyksos, described by Manetho as Asian invaders that “behaved themselves most cruelly” were actually an ethnic group that invaded the Nile Delta in the 16th century BC. Evidence points to a prosperous, multi-ethnic community at Avaris, formed over the centuries, that was well integrated into Egyptian society at the time. Their expulsion was an effect of ambitious Theban rulers who saw the Avaris-based rulers of Lower Egypt as foreigners.
Similarly, the famous and mysterious “Sea People” which were supposed to have come in waves from the general direction of the Mediterranean and trigger the end of the Bronze Age were probably no more than tribes that had lived at the borders of the Egyptian state for centuries and got involved periodically in skirmishes with the Egyptians. It was certainly not a sudden invasion, seeing how they appear in the records over a period of more than a century (two of the “Sea People” tribes are mentioned as having taking part on opposite sides at the battle of Kadesh, in the time of Ramesses II, about a century before the so-called invasion).
Moreover, Egyptian sources are the only ones mentioning Sea People (they are mainly featured on Ramesses III’s temple at Medinet Habu). It is true that, around that time, many cities in the Middle East and Anatolia seem to have disappeared. But that could have been because of a number of causes and casting the Sea People as a large scale migration force which caused the destabilization and eventual collapse of all the Bronze Age cultures is not supported by archeological evidence. Or so Romer argues.
I tended to be skeptical about his approach at first. Especially towards his obsessive tendency to ascribe interpretations of evidence to modern notions held by historians, that allegedly the ancient egyptians were strangers to. Why would those historians not assume that the ancient egyptians were aware of race, ethnicity, nation etc. when the walls of their monuments were full of scenes of smiting foreigners, wars of conquest or had stereotypical depictions of nubians, levantines or lybians to set them apart from the egyptians themselves?
But Romer is in his eighties now and he’s been an active egyptologist for most of his life, whereas I’m just getting into it. So I’m probably not very qualified to critically assess his work.
Finally, his approach sometimes makes for very dry reading. Romer spends pages upon pages describing ruins of temples or cities, as revealed by archeological work (for instance at Amarna or Medinet Habu) and then proceeds to compare the actual evidence with what’s in the history books, concluding almost every issue at hand with “we can’t actually know what happened there”. It’s not a satisfying read if you want a story-shaped history, but it’s a refreshing, grounded and very necessary point of view.
November 14, 2024
Part of me wishes he spent less time talking about the Victorians and more time talking about the Ancient Egyptians. I wish there was a bit more info on how Egypt slipped out of its previous state and into being colonized by Persia and Macedonia, but it sort of ends abruptly.
January 17, 2025
3.5 STARS
I do love the way that John Romer approaches his books, but it is definitely not for everyone. If you are expecting a... this king, married this queen, had these children, conquered this town... this book is not for you.
Romer takes the complicated approach of recounting historical events, and in this case some of which are sparsely documented, through a combination of archaeological evidence and the history of that evidence being found in modern times. In essence, this book is not simply about Egypt's most beloved dynastic period, it's also a book about the evolution of modern Egyptology told through artifacts and their impact on our understanding of ancient history.
Romer sticks to the known facts (I do love that) and weaves a compelling historical timeline, not necessarily in a linear way, but rather by weaving a thread which focuses on the evolution of Egyptian art, architecture and temple texts to tell the story from the Hyksos invasion/repulsion to the end of Ramesside period.
The only change I would make to this, the third volume in Romer's three volume compendium of ancient Egyptian history, might be the way he opens it up. Romer spends almost 20% of this book speaking about the 'Shepherd Kinds' (Hyksos) and using their story (or evolution of their story) to make the point on how historians have changed their approach from attempting to prove findings through the lens of religious writings, to you know... actually digging and seeing what comes up! It was a completely fascinating opening, but because of its length, and the fascinating journey Romer takes us on, I think it would have made a fantastical book all on its own, with a shorter more to the point explanation of who the Hyksos were (might have been) included in this one.
There is something about Romer's sharp eye toward art and architecture that always make his books more, much more, than a simple bedside historical narrative. Pick up this book and open it to the middle somewhere and read. Regardless of where you land, there are things to discover. No matter how much ancient Egyptian history you read, no matter how much you think you might know, Romer always surprises because he points out the small facts which are so often overlooked by others.
I was going to give it 4 starts, but then my son asks me. "If the opening was too long and he skips over large parts of the New Kingdom, how can you give it a nearly perfect score?" he is correct of course. So, I give it 3.5 stars.
If you have any interest in the New Kingdom and are tired of reading the same rehashed stories, this is where you go.
Now Mr. Romer.... The Hyksos. Let's have the book shall we!
I do love the way that John Romer approaches his books, but it is definitely not for everyone. If you are expecting a... this king, married this queen, had these children, conquered this town... this book is not for you.
Romer takes the complicated approach of recounting historical events, and in this case some of which are sparsely documented, through a combination of archaeological evidence and the history of that evidence being found in modern times. In essence, this book is not simply about Egypt's most beloved dynastic period, it's also a book about the evolution of modern Egyptology told through artifacts and their impact on our understanding of ancient history.
Romer sticks to the known facts (I do love that) and weaves a compelling historical timeline, not necessarily in a linear way, but rather by weaving a thread which focuses on the evolution of Egyptian art, architecture and temple texts to tell the story from the Hyksos invasion/repulsion to the end of Ramesside period.
The only change I would make to this, the third volume in Romer's three volume compendium of ancient Egyptian history, might be the way he opens it up. Romer spends almost 20% of this book speaking about the 'Shepherd Kinds' (Hyksos) and using their story (or evolution of their story) to make the point on how historians have changed their approach from attempting to prove findings through the lens of religious writings, to you know... actually digging and seeing what comes up! It was a completely fascinating opening, but because of its length, and the fascinating journey Romer takes us on, I think it would have made a fantastical book all on its own, with a shorter more to the point explanation of who the Hyksos were (might have been) included in this one.
There is something about Romer's sharp eye toward art and architecture that always make his books more, much more, than a simple bedside historical narrative. Pick up this book and open it to the middle somewhere and read. Regardless of where you land, there are things to discover. No matter how much ancient Egyptian history you read, no matter how much you think you might know, Romer always surprises because he points out the small facts which are so often overlooked by others.
I was going to give it 4 starts, but then my son asks me. "If the opening was too long and he skips over large parts of the New Kingdom, how can you give it a nearly perfect score?" he is correct of course. So, I give it 3.5 stars.
If you have any interest in the New Kingdom and are tired of reading the same rehashed stories, this is where you go.
Now Mr. Romer.... The Hyksos. Let's have the book shall we!
July 29, 2024
An absolutely incredible and highly insightful look at Ancient Egypt from the Second Intermediate Period through the dissolution of the New Kingdom. A fantastically nuanced and logical reevaluation of the surviving relics and texts and uses them to construct a realistic vision of the ancient past. Wittily and brilliantly debunks centuries-old myths and ill-conceived notions rooted in the racist imperial notions of the past centuries. A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in ancient Egypt, and especially for those who have read other histories (take, for example, Toby Wilkinson's 2010 The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt) rooted in outdated and sensationalized views of the past.
September 13, 2025
Good. I’ve seen some other reviews decry this book and the series as a whole for simply attacking other narratives and not offering anything as an alternative. This is nonsense. The aim of this series is to deconstruct the fantasy of Ancient Egypt that has taken hold of popular imagination, not to provide you with an interesting story. This obsession with pop history, bleached, sanitized, and truncated, will be the death of the discipline. When Romer writes that there’s little evidence to support the belief that Hatshepsut was the overbearing disciplinarian-queen of Tuthmosis III, browbeating him into submission and leading Egypt into an era of decline until her death allowed the young warrior king to reimpose the great empire - and that that belief is little-supported misogyny taken, like a great many things, from the fruit of the poisoned tree of the predispositions and biases of the very imperfect early Egyptologists- he doesn’t have to provide you with another major theory. It’s history, not fanfiction. You can simply say “The evidence, as it exists, does not support this assertion.”.
If you’re looking for a simple and easy overview of Pharaonic Egypt that’s really just European feudal courts painted over with exotic terms like “Vizier” and “Blessed of Amun” in place of “Adviser” and “The Pious” then this will leave you disappointed. Instead, Romer continues the deconstruction initiated in Volume I. There are many gaps, and it will leave you feeling a bit empty. Things end, but Romer is careful to pause and take a look at the human side of colossal Egypt. The graves of men south of Amarna that died agonizingly, never returning to their homes; the weeping and mourning recorded at the interment of a militia leader at Tanis; the complaint against a work gang overseer’s flirtatious behavior towards the “married” women of Deir El-Medina; the graffiti of the scribe Butehamun begging the gods to preserve him into old age, unlike his father, as he worked feverishly to bury and rebury his ancestors as the only world he’d ever known crumbled around him.
If you’re looking for a simple and easy overview of Pharaonic Egypt that’s really just European feudal courts painted over with exotic terms like “Vizier” and “Blessed of Amun” in place of “Adviser” and “The Pious” then this will leave you disappointed. Instead, Romer continues the deconstruction initiated in Volume I. There are many gaps, and it will leave you feeling a bit empty. Things end, but Romer is careful to pause and take a look at the human side of colossal Egypt. The graves of men south of Amarna that died agonizingly, never returning to their homes; the weeping and mourning recorded at the interment of a militia leader at Tanis; the complaint against a work gang overseer’s flirtatious behavior towards the “married” women of Deir El-Medina; the graffiti of the scribe Butehamun begging the gods to preserve him into old age, unlike his father, as he worked feverishly to bury and rebury his ancestors as the only world he’d ever known crumbled around him.
April 28, 2024
Superb and poetic. Combined history of Egypt and of egyptology (and a critique of colonialism in egyptology.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews