The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt

by Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton

Book Overview

The authors begin with a basic summary of the structure of the pharaonic state, including the nature of ancient Egyptian kingship itself, and then introduce key members of the royal family. This is followed by a chronological survey of the royal family from c. 3100 BC to the last Cleopatra. For each dynasty, or significant part of a dynasty, the authors provide an historical overview of the period, a summary listing of the kings, and a discussion...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500288577
• ISBN13: 9780500288573
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.6" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful book by Dodson

This is a typically well-written and thorough book by the British Egyptologist Dr. Aidan Dodson and his counterpart Dyan Hilton. It is an excellent follow up to Dodson's 1998 book--"Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity." Dodson copes well with the task of listing the more than 1,300 known family members of Ancient Egypt's royal familes starting from Narmer, the first king of Egypt who unified the country down to Cleopatra. The illustrations are of impeccable quality as one would expect from a book publisher such as Thames & Hudson. His geneaological tables are first rate and highly important because he connects the links between a king and his numerous family members. While the price is a bit on the high side, Dodson compensates by including the latest and most up to date research and bibliography for Ancient Egypt including Kim Ryholt's 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period which strongly suggest that the 16th Dynasty was a Theban, rather than a Hyksos, kingdom. (pp.116, 118 & 290) Dodson now acknowledges that a certain Neferneferuaten who ruled Egypt in the interval between Akhenaten's death and Tutankhamun's accession was a woman and not the male king Smenkhkare as he had previously maintained. As Dodson writes: "Definitive evidence as to Neferneferuaten's gender was revealed by James Allen...at the April 2004 meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt." Allen reported that an "examination of palimpest inscriptions of Neferneferuaten on objects reused in Tutankhamun's tomb (on a pectoral and on the canopic coffinettes) have shown conclusively that...the former use the epithet sh-n-h.s, [meaning] 'effective for her husband'. This makes impossible the reconstruction put forward in Dodson 2003, which viewed Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten as one and the same." (pp.150 & 285, note No.111) The authors also accept David Aston's likely correct JEA 75 (1989) proposal that Shoshenq III was the direct successor of the 22nd Dynasty Pharaoh Osorkon II at Tanis rather than Takelot II as most scholars once assumed. (pp.224) As Dodson and Hilton writes: "Takelot II is likely to have been identical with the High Priest Takelot F, who is stated in Karnak inscriptions to have been a son of Nimlot C [the son of Osorkon II], and whose likely period of office falls neatly just before [king] Takelot II's appearance." (p.224) They also note that Osorkon III can only be the illustrious High Priest Osorkon B, son of Takelot II based on a unique stela from Akoris. It explicitly calls king Osorkon III a former High Priest of Amun which was an office that Osorkon B held prior to his disappearance in Year 39 of Shoshenq III. (p.226) This book will certainly be a welcome addition to the collections of Colleges and Universities throughout the world.

Excellent

1. Easy to read. 2. Easy to understand. 3. Shockingly thorough. 4. Well researched. 5. Most complete work on Egyptian royal families that I have ever seen.

Royal Genealogy of Ancient Egypt

This book is the most complete reference of royal genealogy in Ancient Egypt that I have ever come across. I did not expect so much detail about royals who lived thousands of years ago. Each chapter contains - a general description, - an extensive genealogical tree with relationships marked as either certain, highly probable, likely or hypothetical, - a section with short descriptions of all involved persons, - many photographs and drawings. Where "Chronicle of the Pharaohs" by Clayton focuses on the rulers of Ancient Egypt, Dodson and Hilton describe all their known (likely) family members.

Aidan Dodson does it again!

Yet again Thames and Hudson's series `The Complete' comes up with a winner. Royal Families starts with an outline of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaonic State and the set up of the royal family then goes on to list over 1.300 Kings their known Queens and off springs. Royal Families is laid out in an easy to follow, dynasty-by-dynasty fashion with sections on the family tree, historical information and a fascinating section called `Brief Lives'. This later section is a who's who of all the known players on the Ancient Egyptian Royal Families stage. All in all it's an extremely interesting read suitable for academics and armchair historians alike, but then with Aidan Dodson's involvement what else would you expect.