The Origins of Modern Egyptology

In chapters seven through nine of Kevin Jackson and Jonathan Stamps book, Building The Great Pyramid, the authors provide a chronological accounting of the evolution of Egyptology and Pyramidology. This account begins with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and moves through approximately 200 years of Egyptology ending with "The 'Black Egypt' Argument" which rose to prominence in the 1980s. The authors then devote a chapter to the emergence and evolution of Pyramidology or what are commonly known as "cranks."

The authors begin by citing Napoleon's invasion of Egypt as the commencement of Egyptology and cite Napoleon's savants as the initial students of the pyramids. Four of these savants are named specifically: J.M. Lepère and Colonel Jean-Marie Joseph Coutelle who are credited with surveying the interior structure and Edmé-François Jomard along with Cécile who are credited for calculating the overall dimensions of the structures. These findings along with the other savants' findings are subsequently published in the Description de L'Egypte.

Next, the authors discuss how the publication of the Description along with the Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte by the Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, fueled a craze in Europe (specifically France) for all things Egyptian. From here the authors quickly move into a discussion of the looting of Egypt by various groups including: European nations (chiefly Britain and France), local Egyptians, various Turkish government officials (including Mohammed Ali the viceroy of Egypt in 1805) and many private individual ventures.

From looting the authors jump to the decoding of the Hieroglyphs by the linguist Jean-Françios Champollion, who cracked the Hieroglyph language code by studying the Rosetta Stone in 1822. Following the section on Champollion begins a list of men who study, and at times simultaneously vandalize, the Pyramids at Giza. First on this list is Colonel Howard Vyse who used dynamite and drilling equipment to explore and vandalize (he drilled a hole in the Sphinx's back) the monuments found at Giza. The next three names on the list are: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (complied The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (1837) the pioneering work that dealt with the daily lives of the lower classes of ancient Egypt), Karl Richard Lepsius (main contribution was his "accretion theory" which linked pyramid size with the length of a monarchs reign-now considered to be mistaken), and Auguste Mariette (discovered the Serapeum of Memphis and the valley temple of Khafre's pyramid).

Following this section comes a list of tourist that visited the pyramids at varying times. This list includes Gustave Flaubert and Samuel Clemens. Five years after Clemens visit to the pyramids Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie comes to the pyramid site at Giza and officially begins what is considered modern Egyptology. Jackson and Stamps consider Petrie's work on the Great Pyramid, his precise mathematical calculations and his drive to find the truth, to be the turning point in Egyptology. They say: "all subsequent researchers...are in his debt, and aspire to the great Petrie ideal of accuracy and fidelity" (155).

After Petrie the authors split the approximately next ninety years into two groups: the first ranging from 1902-till the first world war and the second ranging from after the second world war till the time of the publication of their book. Brief mentions are made to archeological finds during these time periods and the authors conclude this part of their book with a short section on the "Black Egypt" argument. They then devote an entire chapter to "the world of Egyptological mystic and...crank...of the pyramidologists and 'pyramidiots'"(158) where they discuss at length various theories and myths about the pyramids and egyptians that have developed over the centuries. They conclude by saying that such theories are nonsense and can be left with the flat earth theories.

Analysis

Chapters seven and nine of Jackson and Stamps book set out to detail the evolution of Egyptology from the time of Napoleon's invasion to the present. However, while the chapters were enjoyable to read, the authors undermine a serious academic inquiry into the origins of Egyptology by including a wide variety of "curious and fun" facts about the evolution of Egyptology have no bearing on the evolution of the science of Egyptology and further undermine serious inquiry by failing to provide critical analysis of the pertinent facts which they do include.

The authors begin their exploration of Egyptology with a very interesting string of facts about Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and while it may be interesting to note the phrase Napoleon yelled in order to rally his troops to the massacring of thousands of Mamelukes, it is completely irrelevant to the impact Napoleon and his savants had on the evolution of Egyptology. Again we see the authors' inclusion of "fun fact" while describing the important role that the publications resultant of Napoleon's invasion had in propelling Egypt onto the world stage. They refer to Baron Denon the author of Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte as "A sometime pornographer, and notable wooer and flatterer of powerful women..." (133) - while this might be true it is hardly pertinent. This inclusion is of "fun fact" is even evident in their dealings with Petrie, who, while they hail as the father of modern Egyptology, relate how he paraded about in his bright pink underwear. The inclusion of such facts, along with many others to numerous to enumerate, takes away from critical authenticity and renders the passages as fit for pop culture but hardly are appropriate for serious academia.

Finally, not only do the authors include such irrelevant facts as those mentioned but they fail to make plain through critical analysis the importance of the pertinent facts they do include. They hail Petrie as the instigator of modern egyptology yet they fail to specifically link any of his accomplishments or discoveries to subsequent discoveries or accomplishments within Egyptology. Instead the authors rely on broad generalized statements such as "all subsequent researchers... are in his debt" yet provide no substantial or critical evidence outside of peripheral mentions of his devotion to truth. This omission of critical analysis and the inclusion of unimportant "fun facts" seriously detract from the presentation of a serious accounting of the origins of Egyptology. In fact, just the opposite is true. The authors' disregard for deep intellectual analysis in favor of the inclusion of "fun facts" (including an entire chapter on "pyramidiots") reduces the entire endeavor to that of a mainstream popular approach which perks curiosity and entertains at best, but leaves the reader with no "weighty" or deep matters upon which to ponder.

Sources:
K. Jackson & J. Stamp, "Chapters 7-9," including "The Origins of Modern Egyptology" from "Building the Great Pyramid," 2003.