Peter A. Clayton

The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings. Edited by Richard Wilkinson and Kent R Weeks. 255mm. Pp xvi+627, 69 b/w ills, 11 tables, 3 maps. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016.isbn 9780199931637. £97 (hbk).

gorically that ‘the narratives are skewed and predisposed’, more akin to ‘conversations’ than an academic book on the archaeological research undertaken (p 11). For me, this was actually very welcome. I enjoyed reading this volume because it was unhindered by the detail of context numbers and detailed descriptions of individual sites. There is the odd hiccup with such an approach – for example, archaeological jargon still creeps into the odd page here and there with no explanation, or certain chronological periods or themes, like the Mesolithic or Wags, are given less attention than others – but this is a minor point; the aim is clear and the style is engaging, and that cannot be a bad thing! What of those ideas? Well, the conversational style masks a serious engagement with the materiality of the Caithness past: for example, highlighting the complexity of broch sites, underlining their longevity and examining their reworking over time, where the architecture and the finds both tell intertwining stories; or the diversity of Iron Age burial and the emphasis on the importance of burial rites, and the continued presence of the burial itself within societies in conveying social messages among the living, highlighting the potential of family plots. However, the key areas repeatedly explored across the various aspects of Caithness archaeology are people and presentation. Both form large parts of the discussion of various monument types, helping to explain what has been understood to date, what is visible on the ground and, indeed, what might be invisible below the ground still to discover, and the authors have a very big axe to grind regarding the display and promotion of the Caithness past. It is clear that they are frustrated with what is currently presented to the public, in both its detail of how the monuments are, or are not, conserved and interpreted, to broader marketing deficiencies and inaccessibility. The recent rise and rise of the Caithness Broch Project (www.thebrochproject. co.uk) may help to alleviate some of this, but even this is only a foot in the door of the incredible wealth of research possibilities and promotional opportunities. The preface states that Caithness is ‘one of the richest cultural landscapes in Europe’, and having worked briefly in the area I would have to agree, and yet archaeological research is generally limited to those undertaking community-led research or the pre-development investigations in advance of wind-farms on the uplands. Both are crucial to the vibrancy of the mainly prehistoric story told here, but the abiding thought from this book is that even this has barely scratched the surface of what awaits to be understood about the Caithness past, and what that can tell us about Scotland’s past.

The Material World of Ancient Egypt. ByPeck William H. 254mm. Pp xiii + 214, 93 b&w and line ills.Cambridge University Press, New York,2013.isbn9780521886161/9780521713795.

charts African interaction with wider world systems, examining European (and Asian) colonial encounters and slavery and the question of archaeological recognition of African diasporas. This is a well-produced and accessible work. It will be of great value to students of archaeology and related disciplines as it presents a huge body of complex and diverse data in a very clear and lucid manner, thankfully often jargon-free and reader-friendly. This may also suit university lecturers as well, who may find the sheer geographic and temporal scope of the study area an impediment to keeping ‘current’. At £120 it will be beyond the range of the pockets of students, African and European, so it is to be hoped that access via e-books will be more competitively priced. There is also the danger that certain parts of the book are not as future-proof as others (this happened quite rapidly with the only other comparable comprehensive collected volume on African archaeology published to date: Shaw et al 1993) but these are wider issues which are specific to the publisher and the concept of the handbook series and not to the editors of and contributors to this satisfying and mighty volume.

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and, finally, a discussion which questions the various approaches and interpretations. Lawson quite rightly introduces the reader to the growth in interest of what was considered ‘Palaeolithic’. Prior to the initial discovery of painted art on cave walls, archaeologists and antiquarians had made significant discoveries throughout western Europe that included major lithic assemblages. Sometimes associated with this material was a limited but significant portable art assemblage comprising engraved bone, antler and ivory (termed ‘mobiliary art’). Discovering painted images on cave walls appears to have been the next step of discovery. Of particular interest is Lawson’s account of the initial discovery of the painted frescos at Altamira in northern Spain, its rejection as a legitimate discovery and, later, its acceptance. Here, we read of the political tension and the power games between discoverer and verifier – issues that festered for more than thirty years – and the resulting posthumous apology by the so-called establishment, overlapping here with Rosengren’s treatment of the same subject. For those academics and students looking to expand beyond the usual gazetteer and the development of the archaeology surrounding cave art, Lawson provides a well-written interpretative account in Chapter 6 which deals with such issues as context, cosmology, semiotics and binary opposition. Although this section is useful, much of the grass-roots philosophical discourse is not supported, for example, by references to such works as Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Structural Anthropology (1963) or the work of Tilley (1991). Despite this minor point, the text in this section is ideal for those wishing to extract general answers without the jargon. Further useful discussion on current thinking is also presented within the Epilogue, where Lawson takes a personal voyage, covering such issues as gender, meaning, style and context. Disappointingly, the section on the ‘British Isles’ (not Britain) is rather short and a more detailed account, even if negative, could have been given. Furthermore, and maybe this is a problem with the title of the book, Lawson devotes a few pages to describing the open-air rock of the Côa Valley in north-eastern Portugal – this is an essential addition in order fully to contextualise cave art elsewhere. However, as far as I am aware, there are no caves in that part of the country which contain painted or engraved Upper Palaeolithic art (although later, painted Schematic art is found there). The book will appeal to a wide audience, offering a good overview and a gazetteer of many of the painted caves of Upper Palaeolithic Europe, including those that stand outside the Franco-Cantabrian region. The book is, in my view, a safe option to other recently published material on the subject, providing the reader with a much-needed balanced view of current research. A foreword by the respected researcher Jean Clottes plus an extensive and illuminating gazetteer, supported by a comprehensive bibliography, make this volume an attractive addition to the bookshelf. These two works, while sharing similar content, provide the reader with alternative approaches to disseminating an important aspect in the development of modern human history.

27.99 (pbk).

recorded in the Society’s minute books. From humble beginnings in Padua via the fairgrounds of Europe, fate cast him into Egypt where, against all initial adversities, he found and followed a calling. Some of the finest sculptures in the British Museum, notably the colossal seven-and-a-half ton head of Ramesses II, and much else, the sarcophagus of Seti I in Sir John Soane’s Museum and the lid of the sarcophagus of Ramesses III in Cambridge, are all due to his endeavours. Added to those, he retrieved the Philae obelisk for William John Bankes (now at Kingston Lacey) whose inscriptions were to be vital in Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1822. Belzoni was the first European to enter the Second Pyramid, of Chephren, at Giza (2 March 1818), and the first to find the entrance to the Great Temple at Abu Simbel (1 August 1817) and, five years before Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs, realized that the ‘hero’ depicted on the walls there was the same he saw on temple walls in Thebes, ie Ramesses II. Noël Hume brings Belzoni to life using his own words and the world in which he carried out his explorations, and adds much new insight into that life as well as his own pertinent observations. He particularly puts more flesh onto the person of Belzoni’s long-suffering but devoted wife, Sarah. It is axiomatic that on excavations the best finds turn up on the last day, and Noël Hume has been similarly devilled. Belzoni died at Gato in Benin in 1823, and Sarah in Jersey in January 1870. Mayes did not know where she was buried and both Noël Hume and the reviewer (unbeknown to each other) have for years been trying to locate her grave via Jersey local newspapers, radio and personal contact, to no avail. As, literally, the book came off the presses word came that her grave and inscribed tombstone had been found, recording ‘Sarah, widow of Giovanni Baptista Belzoni’ and the small foot-stone ‘S.B. 1870’. Now the chase is on for details of how and who provided for her burial. Egyptological research, even after a couple of centuries, always has surprises and goals to pursue.

Amenhotep III. Egypt's Radiant Pharaoh. By Kozloff Arielle P. 230mm. Pp xvii + 351, 5 maps, 50 b&w ills. Cambridge University Press, 2012. isbn 9781107011960. £19.99 (pbk).

of advanced phenomenology, such as practised by Ruth Whitehouse and Sue Hamilton (Hamilton et al 2006), and material studies which seek to understand influences and experiences of users of past objects, architecture and landscapes. These insights are presented in the form of inventory analysis, thick description and creative writing. As well as an analysis of hundreds of publications on Malta, dating from the present day back to antiquarian accounts, Skeates’s interpretations are placed in a modern context through his experiences of personal visits and observations which move beyond the visual to include a multi-sensory consideration of the island’s prehistory. It is not only Skeates’s investigation of the evidence that provides interest for the reader but the style of presentation: each chapter includes a narrative account which uses creative writing to bring a new dimension and life to the interpretation. These inserts provide an engaging and ‘peopled’ perspective and are, by Skeates’s own account, often speculative, yet they are grounded in evidence and provide an insightful, alternative avenue for interpretation, bringing past landscapes and monuments to life. Furthermore, they are considerately written, providing a narrative without assuming gender or age biases. Skeates considers roles of memory and identity construction as created and reinforced through interactions in an environment which is both monumental and habited. For instance, he attributes temple building to local, kin-based farming communities, monuments that were physically built into the material remains of the living. Temples, he argues, combined concepts of house, shrine and tomb, alongside a core belief in the separation of the dead from the living, and the individual into corporate (p 163). Located in the hearts of settlements, the temples played an integral role in the everyday lives of inhabitants, while charging the quotidian with supernatural potency (p 197). Interpretations such as these are provided for the spheres of habitation, monumentality and mortuary practices, which culminate in a conclusion that returns, tangibly, to the founding concepts of investigation: the senses, including sight, sound, touch, smell and taste, alongside spatiality, emotions and synaesthesia. Finally, in the concluding chapter, each period of study is summarized in terms of ‘Sensual Cultures’, including the dynamics, claims and sensory landscapes of past inhabitants throughout the Early Neolithic, Later Neolithic, Temple Period and Bronze Age. The volume concludes with a reflection of such research in a modern context. It is clear that such accounts will contribute to future narratives of Malta’s archaeological remains. This volume is a fundamental addition to a growing body of research into Malta’s prehistory, providing a new and refreshing approach to one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological landscapes. The book is not only of interest to those researching the prehistory of the island, it is of value to the expansive audience of those concerned with archaeological methodology, interpretation and representation, and the role of the past in the present.