The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later. This, the first of a three-volume survey of the history of Egyptology, follows the fascination with ancient Egypt from antiquity until 1881, tracing the recovery of ancient Egypt and its impact on the human imagination in a saga filled with intriguing mysteries, great discoveries, and scholarly creativity.

The discovery of ancient Egypt and the development of Egyptology are momentous events in intellectual and cultural history. The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later. This, the first of a three-volume survey of the history of Egyptology, follows the fascination with ancient Egypt from antiquity until 1881, tracing the recovery of ancient Egypt and its impact on the human imagination in a saga filled with intriguing mysteries, great discoveries, and scholarly creativity.Wonderful Things affirms that the history of ancient Egypt has proved continually fascinating, but it also demonstrates that the history of Egyptology is no less so. Only by understanding how Egyptology has developed can we truly understand the Egyptian past.

Introduction1. Historical Outline2. Egyptology in Antiquity3. A Medieval Hiatus4. Ancient Egypt in the Renaissance and Early Modern Imagination5. Ancient Egypt in the Age of the Enlightenment6. The Discovery of Ancient Egypt7. The Decipherment of the Hieroglyphs8. Lifting the Veil9. Egypt Itself10. Hiatus11. Consolidation12. Preservation and Depredation13. Taking Possession of Egypt for the Cause of Science14. Mariette's Monopoly15. Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Art, Photography, and Literature16. The Golden Age17. The Post-Maspero Antiquities Service18. The Seven Hathors19. New Horizons20. Greco-Roman Egypt21. Loret's Interlude22. The Return of Maspero23. Return of Maspero (cont.)24. The Berlin School25. Egyptology Comes to America26. The United States Enters the Field27. Attention Turns South28. The Twilight of the Golden Age