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REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT
Following a publishing trend of making classic and out-of-print texts available to a wide general audience, this latest reprint was first published in 2006 but is now available in paperback for the first time.
There are a number of historic Egyptological gatherings that are known to have broken significant new ground, and for which you ‘just had to be there’. The 2003 international conference in rural Wales on the subject of dreams, magic, and prophecy in ancient Egypt was arguably one of these unmissable Egyptological events. Thankfully for those of us who did not attend, this rich volume of papers by speakers at the event brings together the thoughts of a diversity of specialists who show us that ‘perhaps there is no final word to be spoken on these aspects of ancient cultures’.
Drawing on archaeological, literary, philological, art, and historical source material, 13 papers explore different facets of this complex and frequently misunderstood area of Egyptological research. In her introduction, Szpakowska highlights the historic biases and assumptions that led to the subject of ancient Egyptian magic being deemed a genre unworthy of meaningful study. As this volume shows, the subject clearly holds a great deal of interest and inspiration for all those who wish to understand fully the complexities of life in ancient Egypt.
The authors, including John Baines, Richard Parkinson, and Carolyn Graves-Brown, are established experts in the subject, and the beauty of this volume is the way in which their respective approaches are interwoven into a truly multidisciplinary narrative. Archaeological studies, including Graves-Brown’s paper on ‘divinity and flint’ and an exploration of ‘corn mummies’ by Maria Costanza Centrone, sit comfortably alongside philological studies of important literary sources, such as Parkinson’s paper on the meanings of a simile in the Story of Sinuhe and Alan B Lloyd’s paper ‘Magic, Dreams and Prophecy in Egyptian Narrative Literature’. Willeke Wendrich’s paper on the power of knots and knotting in ancient Egypt will prompt readers to see ‘knotted objects’ in museum collections, and on tomb and temple reliefs, in a new light. The resulting volume feels holistic, coherent, and eminently readable.
Illustrated with a series of line-drawings and greyscale images, and supported with chapter bibliographies and a comprehensive index, the paperback reprint of this important volume will ensure that the results of this groundbreaking conference will continue to have impact on the approaches and assumptions of all readers who wish to learn more about this fascinating subject, and perhaps change somewhat their own perception of ancient Egypt.
Through a glass darkly: Magic, dreams and prophecy in ancient Egypt
ed. Kasia Szpakowska
CLASSICAL PRESS OF WALES, 2023
ISBN 978-1-9145-3535-2
Paperback, £25
