Sunday, June 24, 2007

Book Reviews from Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.06.37
Christina Riggs, The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt: Art, Identity, and Funerary Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xxiii, 334 . ISBN 978-0-19-927665-3. $150.00.
Reviewed by David Frankfurter, University of New Hampshire (davidTf@unh.edu)

How Egyptian was Roman Egypt? The question has dominated quarters of Classics, Art History, and Ancient History for over a century. The perpetuation of classical Egyptian iconography on temples suggests a fundamental religious conservatism, while papyrological documentation reflects extensive Hellenism.



Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.06.36
Elizabeth Blyth, Karnak. Evolution of a Temple. London/New York: Routledge, 2006. Pp. 258. ISBN 0-415-40487-8. $46.95 (pb).
Reviewed by Peter C. Nadig, RWTH-Aachen (cvr@rwth-aachen.de)

Blyth's (hereafter B.) book is a very well written account of the history, development and function of the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak (Jpt-swt), one of the largest and surely most complex religious sites not only in ancient Egypt but the ancient world as a whole. It was founded in the Middle Kingdom about 4,000 years ago and parts of it were even in use for Christian worship after the closing of pagan cults under Theodosius I.

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