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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb analysis of a complex historical period, January 24, 2010
This review is from: Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (Hardcover)
Based upon a singularly cogent, well-reasoned article by Aidan Dodson in a magazine of Egyptian history several months ago, I have been waiting with great anticipation the publication of his new "Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation". Finally, my waiting is over, and the new book is everything that I could hope for. In describing Dodson's approach to the complex history of the "Amarna Period" and its immediate aftermath during Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty, I can do no better than quote from the author's preface: "very little of the Amarna story is indeed fact: much of what we think we 'know' is actually (more or less) inspired guesswork based on what Sir Alan Gardiner so rightly called the 'rags and tatters' that pass for the raw material of ancient Egyptian history writing. As such, scholarly interpretations can change radically overnight with the appearance of new hard evidence. Indeed, readers familiar with my previous published work on the period will doubtlessly be surprised that some or the key conclusions of the first half of this book are diametrically opposite to ideas I have vigorously propounded and defended over the past few decades. However, my change of views has been a result of the availablity of new data, and it is important to be prepared to reconsider one's position, even if it means repudiating long held-beliefs ... Inevitably there are areas where the view put forward is very much my own -- in some ways inevitably, given the lack of real consensus among Amarna Period specialists -- but I have aimed to indicate areas where alternative interpretations exist, and I have made references to them ... [W]here I put forward or support a view that differs from the received wisdom -- rare as that commodity is in Amarna studies -- it is because this is either what seems to produce the most coherent scenario, or what sticks most closely to what the bare evidence suggests. On the other hand, the overall picture put forward inevitably depends on assuming the correctness of certain hypotheses -- but with the acknowledgement that they are just that and do not claim to be 'facts,' whatever those might be!"
I suppose that Aidan Dodson would be the last to claim that his conclusions are cast in concrete and are the ultimate answers to the many questions that bedevil the study of the Amarna Period, but the analysis he presents is both highly detailed and persuasive. Obviously, all will not agree with all of his conclusions (such as that Smenkhare preceded Neferneferuaten, and that Neferneferuaten was indeed Nefertiti, and that she acted as co-pharaoh with both her husband Akhenaten and their son Tutankhamun), but none can deny that those conclusions have been achieved after careful consideration of a broad range of evidence, with the analysis given in a wonderfully coherent, detailed manner.
Seldom have I awaited a book with higher expectations, and seldom have such expectations been met and even exceeded in this manner.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Boon for Amarnaphiles, January 26, 2010
This review is from: Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (Hardcover)
Professor Dodson has brilliantly brought together the wealth of dated and current material on the enigmatic last years of king Akhenaten's reign and those of the following regents in Egypt's eighteenth dynasty. Like other scholars of the period, Dodson's thoughtful weaving together of the available evidence is based on certain assumptions, something he graciously admits, but anyone fascinated by Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and Tutankhamun will find this book thoroughly intriguing. It will be interesting to learn what other scholars have to say of Dodson's late Amarna scenario.
Two shortcomings: Some illustrations, especially those of N. de G. Davies' meticulous drawings of Amarna tomb paintings, are so small as to almost require magnification. (The interested reader can find full page reproductions of Davies' drawings in "The Rock Tombs of El Amarna" republished by The Egypt Exploration Society, 2003-2005.) And it is a question in the mind of this writer why Dodson does not mention the recently revealed absence of much of the ribcage of Tutankhamun's mummy--an almost certain indication of some kind of mortal accident.
All in all Amarna Sunset is a book to heartily recommend.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing to some extent, June 16, 2010
This review is from: Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation (Hardcover)
I read the original article by this author when it appeared in "Kmt" magazine and was quite excited to get the book. Once it did arrive, however, I found it rather disappointing. The author has proposed a few new variations on the overall confusion of theories concerning the connections within the royal family of Amarna, but I found several of these variations lacking any real support. This book is certainly superior to the 4-hour "Discovery" channel recently aired, however. That program jumped to conclusions like crazy, conclusions that are actually speculations for the most part. Hiwass want the boy found in KV55 to be that of Akhenaten that he takes flimsy evidence and makes a definite conclusion, then he goes on to make others that are not backed by certain evidence. This book isn't that off-the-wall and/or prejudiced toward the author's ideas, but it isn't the revelation it appeared to be before it was published. I found it disappointing, but it is an okay book, just not an important one. Other reviewers state that it is very easy to read and comprehend, but as someone who has read and re-read everything I've ever been able to get my hands on concerning Akhenaten, I don't agree.
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