Legends of the Pyramids (eBook)

Myths and Misconceptions about Ancient Egypt

Jason Colavito (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
240 Seiten
Indiana University Press (Verlag)
978-1-68435-150-3 (ISBN)

Infos

* In the vein of the Prothero titles, which have sold well. * Well-researched book which traces the origins of popular myths surrounding the pyramids. * It examines Egypt from the point of view of pop culture and myth rather than academic history. * It is one of the first books to fully explore the influence of medieval Islam on modern myths of Egypt. * It connects stories from Classical Antiquity down to modern movies to show they are part of a continuous whole. * It includes discussion and translation of rare ancient and medieval texts almost never discussed in the West.

---

Could the Great Pyramid of Giza be a repository of ancient magical knowledge? Or perhaps evidence of a vanished pre-Ice Age civilization?Misinformation and myths have attached themselves to the Egyptian pyramids since ancient Greece and Rome. While many Americans believe that the pyramids were built by aliens, archaeologists understand that the Giza pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty around 2450 BCE. So why is there such a disconnect between scholarly opinion and the popular view of Egypt? In The Legends of the Pyramids, Jason Colavito takes us back to Late Antique Egypt, where the replacement of polytheism with Christianity gave rise to local efforts to rewrite the stories of Egyptian history in the image of the Bible. When the Arab conquest absorbed Egypt into the Islamic community, these stories then passed into Islamic historiography and reentered the West. Colavito's The Legends of the Pyramids lays open pop culture's view of Egypt in movies, TV shows, popular books, and New Age beliefs, detailing how the hidden history of Egypt has grown alongside the official history of archaeology and Egyptology.

Autor

Jason Colavito researches the connections between science, pseudoscience, and speculative fiction, with an emphasis on pop culture. He is the author of numerous books and blogs regularly about history, the supernatural, and popular culture. He is based in Delmar, New York.

Inhalt

Note on the Text
Introduction
1. Ancient Testimonia
2. Why Are the Pyramids Not in the Bible?
3. Late Antiquity
4. The Early Middle Ages
5. Pyramid Legends in Medieval Islam
6. The Meaning Behind the Myth
7. The Translation of Pyramid Legends
8. The Romance of the Pyramids
9. The Great Mistake
10. The Curse of King Tut
11. Mummies in Outer Space
12. Race and Religion
Conclusion
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.6.2024
• Zusatzinfo: 28 b&w illus.
• Verlagsort: Bloomington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Schlagworte: Ancient World • debunk • great flood • Hieroglyphics • Islam • Judeo-Christian • King Tut • Legends • Mummies • Mythology • pharoahs • Pseudoscience
• ISBN-10: 1-68435-150-2 / 1684351502
• ISBN-13: 978-1-68435-150-3 / 9781684351503