Tutankhamun's Trumpet by Toby Wilkinson

/

Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects from the Boy King’s Tomb
By Toby Wilkinson
W. W. Norton, 2022

November 1922 saw the greatest archaeological discovery the world has ever seen. After years of fruitless digging, Howard Carter and his team discovered the lost tomb of Tutankhamun. Unlike most tombs of Ancient Egypt’s kings long since cleared out by tomb robbers, Tutankhamun’s tomb, while not entirely escaping the robbers, contained thousands of grave goods. This discovery led to a craze for all things Egyptian. A century on from the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, Toby Wilkinson capitalizes on the anniversary with his new history of Ancient Egypt, Tutankhamun’s Trumpet.

Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the dynasty that reunited Egypt into the New Kingdom after the Second Intermediate Period. Tutankhamun’s father and predecessor was Akhenaten, the heretic king who raised the deification of the solar disk, the Aten, as the supreme god of Egypt to the denigration of Amun, who by this point had been the king of the gods for centuries. The tumult of Akhenaten’s reign led to a backlash during the reigns of his successors.

Tutankhamun came to the throne as a child. And while he reigned for roughly a decade, he died before reaching his twentieth birthday. Hence why, though being a teenager, he is called the Boy King. Tutankhamun’s reign witnessed the restoration of the traditional godly hierarchy in addition to the traditional building projects and military action. However, given Tutankhamun’s youth and chronic health issues, Tutankhamun died before he could sire an heir. This ultimately led to the fall of the Eighteenth Dynasty. As a courtier and a general came to the throne to round out the dynasty, Tutankhamun was proscribed by Horemheb (the general) and the succeeding Nineteenth Dynasty.

Tutankhamun was ultimately a minor king. This, in a roundabout way, led to his tomb being largely left intact. The location of the tomb itself was forgotten. It would be a further three thousand years before the first step leading to Tutankhamun’s tomb would be discovered by Hussein Abdel Rassul, a water boy working on Howard Carter’s team.

Tutankhamun’s Trumpet is organized around one hundred objects found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. Rather than a discussed list of the one hundred items, the book is organized into ten topical chapters featuring ten of the items. This structure allows Wilkinson, who previously wrote The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, to explore the history of Ancient Egypt outside of a strictly chronological perspective.

A strength of this approach is that glossed over aspects of Ancient Egypt’s history and culture can be explored. This includes a number of individual Egyptians whose stories might only appear in the most scholarly monographs or the rare book devoted to the daily lives of the Ancient Egyptians.

Unfortunately, this topical history has some flaws. Repetition is the book's biggest flaw. The chapter titled “Supremacy” is about military matters and the chapter titled “Monarchy” is about Egyptian monarchy. Being a king involves military matters so the later chapter on monarchy repeats parts of the former chapter. Again, the chapters titled “Bounty” and “Mortality” involve similar discussions of the Egyptian diet. And, oddly, the final chapter “Legacy” features two similar narrations of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

While discussions of the last ten items comprise the chapter on “Legacy,” the chapter is largely about perspectives on Egypt long after Egyptian civilization came to an effective end. There are some interesting bits in this chapter, foremost the identification of Rassul as the one who discovered the first steps leading to the tomb.

A centennial anniversary, even if Egyptomania has largely faded from the popular imagination, is an invitation to capitalize. This can be a boon for fans and students of Ancient Egypt, given the regular dearth of new titles. But sometimes capitalization leads to rushed or ill conceived books.

Tutankhamun’s Trumpet has an interesting idea for a history of Ancient Egypt. Unfortunately the execution of the book leaves much to be desired.

James Holder holds a BA in English Literature. He lives in Texas.