The Boat Beneath the Pyramid: King Cheops' Royal Ship

by Nancy Jenkins, John Ross (Photographer)

184 pp. with 150 illus. (13 in color), 8vo.

Genres: History, Egypt

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hank Kupjack was, at the time of his death three years ago, my oldest friend. In his will he left me the pick of his extensive library. Head of 'E.J. Kupjack and Associates', primarily notable for the Thorne Rooms at Chicago's Art Institute, many of these books are historical, with an emphasis on Egyptology and Greco-Roman history, the former being of particular interest to Hank, his dream having long been to finance digs along the Nile upon sale of the 60+ miniature rooms in his possession. Sadly, this was not to be.

'The Boat Beneath the Pyramid', prepared in collaboration with Ahmed Youssef Moustafa, the restorer of the ship found some decades ago at the foot of the Great Pyramid, served me as a pleasant refresher on mainstream thinking about early dynastic Egypt. The controversies author Jenkins concentrates on are those concerning the ship. Was it ever used? What was its connection to religious ideas? Were the burials of such ships commonplace during any period and, if so, where should we look for others?

The other main foci of the book concern, first, the discovery and restoration of it and, second, its construction in reference to ship building in early Egypt. Here Jenkins gets most technical, using a lot of terms not in common parlance.

Most of Hank's books are coming, piecemeal, to Heirloom Books in Chicago. A few I shall probably keep.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nicely illustrated little book is written as an adventure describing the unearthing and reconstruction of one of the world's most amazing ancient artifacts. I would highly commend the photography and the story telling. It's well worth reading if you're interested in Khufu's boat and the many other boats discovered since this one came to light in 1954. It also gives a good view into the politics of Egyptian Egyptology of the time. Political pressures dominated rational decisions in the 50s when the country had been taken over by General Nasser and nationalistic sentiment ran wild. In that situation it took many long years and more than half a dozen different assemblies before the boat was put together into it's present form. It's unknown how much evidence was destroyed or thrown away during the process. In today's world it would be thankfully unthinkable to treat 4,500 year old artifacts that way.

It's sad that the beautiful ancient boat is rotting away in a badly constructed museum in the shadow of Khufu's pyramid. Hopefully the team from Waseda University is doing a better job (as of 2011-13) of conserving and reconstructing the boat from the western boat pit beside the one this boat was taken from in the 50s. I look forward to seeing the results of a more modern conservation and knowledgeable reconstruction of the twin boat.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource book