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Short Synopsis
The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

Full Synopsis
The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries, and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.

"In a measured yet appreciative tone, Elizabeth Wiley narrates . . . Wiley is especially adept at pronouncing the many pharaoh and place names." ---AudioFile

Women in the Valley of the Kings

The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age

Author Kathleen Sheppard

Narrated by Elizabeth Wiley

Publication date Jul 16, 2024

Running time 12 hrs 6 min

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