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Treasured

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Treasured

By: Christina Riggs
Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
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About this listen

A surprising new history of Tutankhamun published to coincide with the centenary of his tomb's discovery.

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.

“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

©2022 Christina Riggs (P)2022 Hachette Audio Ancient Egypt Historical Middle East Politics & Activism Royalty Africa Pharaoh

Critic reviews

"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)
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Most relevant
This is a thoughtful examination of a discovery whose 100th anniversary is marked in 2022. The author does not shy away from the difficult issues of colonialism, politics, cultural bias and commercial exploration which surround not just this discovery but all of western biased Egyptology. My only criticism is with the frequent and jarring mispronunciations by the narrator of common English words. Better editing of the audio would have helped this enormously. But I highly recommend the excellent and thought provoking content which challenges many preconceptions around the Boy King of ancient Egypt.

Excellent addition to Tut mania

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Really enjoyable book, I didn’t realise Tutankhamen was paraded around the world as much as he was. I like the narrator but I’m not sure she was the right narrator to fit this book.

Hidden gem

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