Description

‘Impeccably researched and beautifully written’ David Wengrow
‘Utterly original’ Paul Strathern

When it was found in 1922, the 3,300-year old tomb of Tutankhamun sent shockwaves around the world, turning the boy-king into a household name overnight and kickstarting an international media obsession that endures to this day.

From pop culture and politics to tourism and heritage, and from the Jazz Age to the climate crisis, it’s impossible to imagine the twentieth century without the discovery of Tutankhamun – yet so much of the story remains untold. Here, for the first time, Christina Riggs weaves compelling historical analysis with tales of lives touched by an encounter with Tutankhamun, including her own. Treasured offers a bold new history of the young pharaoh who has as much to tell us about our world as his own.

‘Searching, masterful and eloquent’ James Delbourgo

Publisher Review

This utterly original work by Christina Riggs tells the remarkable story of how the discovery of Tutankhamun changed not only her own life, but that of the century following its discovery. This is no dry tome, but a tale of personal obsessions -- her own, and that of many others, who were affected by this most sensational discovery. * Paul Strathern * Searching, masterful and eloquent, Treasured plunges the reader into the mesmerizing story of Tutankhamun and the unending struggle for meaning, identity and money his rediscovery ignited a century ago. A deeply personal account that reveals how the scientific claims of Egyptology remain unable to match the mythological power of Tutmania, and how gazing on the boy king's golden face has shaped our perceptions of Egypt - and ourselves. * James Delbourgo, author of Collecting the World * At last, a serious treatment of one of the twentieth century's most important cultural icons. Through the lens of its most famous discovery, Tutankhamun's tomb, Christina Riggs demolishes the "great man" view of archaeology to reveal a true social history of our modern engagement with ancient Egypt - filled with messy, tragic, politicised, and often haunting encounters that span the globe. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Treasured is infinitely more accurate and fascinating than what's gone before. * David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything * Christina Riggs brings a host of fresh perspectives to the story of Tutankhamun - a story you might feel you know, but really don't. A fabulous cultural history of the boy-king's discovery and the complex afterlife of that global event, weaving together colonial and Egyptian elements with the strange international role the pharaoh's body and treasures have taken on in the last 100 years. Elegant, compelling and illuminating. * Professor Roger Luckhurst, author of The Mummy's Curse *