The Search for Ancient Egypt () is a 1986 illustrated monograph on the history of the rediscovery of ancient Egypt and of Egyptology. Written by the French Egyptologist Jean Vercoutter, and published by Éditions Gallimard as the first volume in their pocket collection "Découvertes" (known as "New Horizons" in the United Kingdom, and "Abrams Discoveries" in the United States). The book was awarded a literary prize by the Fondation de France in 1987.
Synopsis and introduction
In the century AD, the Christian Emperor Theodosius I decreed the closure of all the pagan temples in the Empire. Unexpected consequence: the hieroglyphic writing, still alive until then, abruptly stopped being understood. The Pharaonic Egypt fell into oblivion. The expedition of Bonaparte in 1798 and the magnificent aroused in Europe a craze for the monuments and the art of this ancient civilisation. The decipherment of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 marks the birth of Egyptology.
As part of the series, Jean Vercoutter recounts in the book the history of the rediscovery of pharaonic Egypt, from the Graeco-Roman period to the century; and the whole history of Egyptology, its birth and growth, with all the important figures in this discipline; as well as the study of archaeological sites, artefacts and documents discovered in Egypt in the and centuries.
According to the tradition of "Découvertes", which is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper, as commented in L'Express, "genuine monographs, published like art books". The book is almost like a "graphic novel", replete with colour plates.
The Search for Ancient Egypt was one of the bestsellers in France, and is one of the five bestsellers in the "Découvertes" collection, together with Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. As of 2001, it has sold more than five hundred thousand copies worldwide. The book has been translated into Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Danish, Dutch (Belgium & the Netherlands), English (UK & US), German, Italian, Japanese, Lebanese Arabic, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, South Korean, Spanish (Spain & Hispanic America), Swedish, Turkish, traditional (Taiwan) and simplified Chinese (China), and reprinted several times. The reissued edition underwent a decrease in page length, from 224 pages in 1986 down to 160 pages in 2007. An electronic edition for iPad came out in 2012, including a .
Chapters
Body text "Trailer" (, ): a succession of full-page illustrations accompanied by texts, created by Dominique Thibault, after painted reliefs from ancient Egypt, such as the relief depicting Ramesses III in the tomb of his son Amun-her-khepeshef (), among others. Chapter I: "The Disappearance of Pharaonic Egypt" (, ) evoking the deplorable events that were the destruction of the Library of Alexandria (it is said that there were seven hundred thousand volumes) and the temple of Serapis in the same city, missing in any of the buildings those precious texts which could clarify the gaps that exist today about the history of Pharaonic Egypt. Fortunately other sources remained available, the Bible being one of them, as the author well mentioned. Chapter II: "Travelers in Ancient Times" (, ) recalls the journey and texts of Herodotus, "the traveller par excellence", followed later by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo (who was very interested in the animal cults) and Plutarch (who bequeathed us his version of the myth of Osiris and Isis, inspired by Manetho's text, then preserved in a Ptolemaic copy). The Roman Emperors Hadrian and Septimius Severus are also included in the list of those illustrious travellers in the country of the Nile, preceded by the General Germanicus, member of the imperial family in the time of Tiberius.
Chapter III: "Crusaders, Monks, and Sightseers on the Banks of the Nile" (, ) recalling a time when the doors of Muslim Egypt were virtually closed to the Christian West. It is true that in the time of the Crusades there were some texts emerged to lift the Islamic mantle that covered the historic region, but in any case travellers were scarce in south Cairo. Hence, "none of the accounts from the 1 to the 14 centuries can compare with those of the ancients."—at that time no one knew the hieroglyphic texts anymore. Up to the beginning of the 19 century, more or less illustrious visitors (the Dominican Vansleb, Jean de Thévenot, Benoît de Maillet, Claude Sicard, Claude-Étienne Savary, comte de Volney), with special emphasis on General Bonaparte leading his army and his sages. Chapter IV: "Treasure Hunters and Thieves" (, ) – Bonaparte's expedition resulted in the most fruitful publication of two notable works: Vivant Denon's Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt and Description de l'Égypte. "Between 1802 and 1830 a dozen travelers of note came from France, England, Germany, and Switzerland to see for themselves the wonders revealed by the Travels and the Description". It was then that Egypt became, it can be said, fashion. This led to the emergence of Egyptomania and, much more importantly, the birth of Egyptology. Then the author evokes the acts of European consuls and their active persons engaged in the procurement of antiquities (the Great Belzoni was one of them), sometimes using processes closer to prey and looting than meticulous prospecting. It is natural that this should happen in those days when archaeological method was still in development. Chapter V: "The Era of the Scholars" (, ) – The beginning of this era, with the expected prominence given to Jean-François Champollion, who knew how to anticipate the efforts of several competitors (Thomas Young, Johan David Åkerblad and Silvestre de Sacy). Big names in the post-Champollionic phase are those of Karl Richard Lepsius, founder of German Egyptology, John Gardner Wilkinson, the "Father of British Egyptology", and Émile Prisse d'Avennes, who sent a number of Egyptian antiquities to France. Chapter VI: "Archaeologists to the Rescue" (, ) – After several decades of unbridled looting, of destruction of monuments, of contempt for the meticulous recording of the finds, came the archaeologists to rescue Egypt. Among them are: Auguste Mariette, who would eventually die in Egypt occupying the high position of Director of Antiquities; Gaston Maspero, Mariette's successor and Heinrich Karl Brugsch, who was associated with Mariette in his excavations at Memphis. Chapter VII: "The Rediscovery of Ancient Egypt" (, ) – This chapter evokes the works of Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings (tomb of Tutankhamun), and Pierre Montet's excavations at Tanis (tombs of Psusennes I, Amenemope, Shoshenq II ...), it's already in the first half of 20 century. If the discoveries of the tombs of Tutankhamun and Psusennes had the international exposure, the truth is that almost every year new findings have been brought to light, many of which are only in the knowledge of the teams of work, of scholars and readers of specialised Egyptology journals. At a good pace, the discoveries continue today, methodically exploring the archaeological sites that exist not only in Egypt but also in Nubia; so "the philologists, epigraphers, and historians were all kept busy examining newly unearthed documentary material", and "Egyptology had left its infancy behind and was now maturing into adulthood". Gatefold following page (), of panoramic view: Philae, watercolour by Sir John Gardner Wilkinson Map of Egypt by Dominique Thibault Philae, watercolour by Sir John Gardner Wilkinson
Documents
Unlike the body text in colour, the second part of the book—the "Documents" (, )—is printed in black and white, functioning as an anthology of excerpts divided into 19 parts (16 in English edition), taken from texts by Jean Tulard on Napoléon's expedition in Egypt, Chateaubriand (), Flaubert (), Maxime Du Camp (), Fromentin (), Mark Twain (The Innocents Abroad), Pierre Loti (), Mariette ().
Besides these big names, there are texts by modern Egyptologists such as Claude Traunecker, Vercoutter himself on the rescue of Abu Simbel temples and Jean-Claude Golvin (about the restoration works at Karnak), among others. The rest recount the transport of Egyptian obelisks to Europe, the inauguration of the Suez Canal, the mummy of Ramesses II under attack by fungi, the renewed attempts to discover the secret of the Great Pyramid, the main works of art of the Egyptian collection at Louvre Museum, etc. The document also includes references to comic books where Egypt is the theme (Asterix, Tintin and Blake and Mortimer).
The book closes with a complete chronology of Ancient Egyptian history (from 6000 BC to 639 AD), further reading, list of illustrations and an index.
Documents () and Appendices () First French edition English edition 1, La campagne d'Égypte () 1, The Egyptian Campaign () 2, La Description de l'Égypte () 2, The Description of Egypt () 3, Le style « retour d'Égypte » () 3, The Egyptian Revival Style () 4, Le long voyage des obélisques () 4, The Obelisk's Long Journey () 5, L'inauguration du Canal de Suez () 5, The Inauguration of the Suez Canal () 6, Le voyage en Orient () 6, The Father of Modern Egyptology (about Flinders Petrie; English edition exclusive, ) 7, Des Américains à l'assaut des pyramides () 7, The American Assault on the Pyramids () 8, Un officier de marine à Philæ () 8, The Greatest Excavator of his Day (about George Andrew Reisner; English edition exclusive, ) 9, Le Sérapéum de Memphis () 9, The Serapeum at Memphis () 10, La résurrection de Karnak () 10, The Resurrection of Karnak () 11, La renaissance de Philæ () 11, The Rebirth of Philae () 12, Le sauvetage d'Abou Simbel () 12, The Rescue of Abu Simbel () 13, Histoires de pillages... () 13, Stories of Pillaging () 14, L'Égyptologie aujourd'hui () 14, Egyptology Today () 15, La journée d'un archéologue () 16, La nouvelle vie de Ramsès II () 15, A New Lease on Life for Ramses II () 17, Les mystères des pyramides () 18, Sur la piste de Chéops () 16, In Search of Cheops () 19, L'Égypte au musée du Louvre () Les grandes divisions chronologiques de l'histoire de l'Égypte () Chronology () Further Reading () Table des illustrations () List of Illustrations () Index () Index () Remerciements/Crédits photographiques () Acknowledgments/Photograph Credits () Table des matières () Contents ()
Reception On Babelio, the book has an average of 3.58/5 based on 25 ratings. Goodreads reported, based on 124 ratings, an average of 3.81 out of 5, indicating "generally positive opinions".